LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

"Bx-^n — 

Shelf A-k-R 32. 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE APOSTLESHIP OF PRAYER 



IMPRIMATUR. 

Philadelphia, feria iii. Majoris Hebdomadoe, 1889. 

4< Patritius Joannes, 

Archtep. Philadelphiensis. 



\ 



THE 

APOSTLESHIP OF PRAYER 



BY ,/ 

FATHER HENRY RAMIERE 

OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS 



A NEW TRANSLATION, 

WITH NOTES, REFERENCE ANALYSES AND INDEX. 



/ desire therefore first of all that sup- 
plications, prayers, intercessions and 
thanksgivings be made for all men. 

I Timothy, ii. 1 




PHILADELPHIA 

MESSENGER OF THE SACRED HEART 

114 South Third Street 

1889 



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COPYRIGHT 

1889 

by Rev. R. S. Dewey, S. J. 



This new translation of Father Ramiere's great 
work is an endeavor to present, with strict faithful- 
ness, the last thoughts of the author on the high 
questions treated. Thus whatever notes have been 
added are taken, for the most part, from his own later 
writings ; and no omissions have been made in what 
is given. The entire third part of the original book 
had been materially changed during the author's life- 
time, and all recent editions have been obliged to 
substitute quite different chapters, on account of the 
exigences of a work that has far outgrown, in its 
details, all that was foreseen by its founders. In this 
new translation it has been thought better to omit 
this part altogether, as it is found substantially in the 
Handbook of the League of the Sacred Heart. 

Recent controversy has drawn the attention of 
minds to certain questions not uppermost when this 
book was written. A few annotations have been 
thought necessary on this account, and a single point, 
taken for granted by the author's Christian faith, has 
been treated anew in a brief appendix. These addi- 



VI 



tions are in all cases carefully distinguished from the 
text of the author by means of brackets. 

For the convenience of those who may desire to 
make use of the work for purposes of instruction or 
reference, each chapter has been prefaced by a care- 
ful analysis^ indicating the principal ideas and the 
thread of their connection ; and with this correspond 
the headlines of pages. The venerated author's long 
experience in teaching and popularly explaining 
theology had already made his book a work of science 
as well as an eloquent exposition of religion. Besides 
the author's table of contents, it has been thought 
well to add an index of Scriptural texts and doctrinal 
points touched on in the course of his work, with 
references co corresponding passages in the Catechism 
of the Council of Trent. This will be of service, it 
is believed, to many, and will not interfere with 
interest on the part of the simple reader. 

The work of Father Henry Ramiere on the Apos- 
tleship of Prayer has been called ' epoch-making. ' 
It is certainly one of the most noteworthy and lucid 
explanations of a part of the Christian religion that 
reaches furthest into the lives and inmost sympathies 
of men. It belongs to the line of works designed by 
their distinguished authors to popularize a science so 
remote from present tastes and interests as theology. 
Perhaps no publication of the kind ever obtained a 
wider success, and it is hard to conceive a time when 



Vll 



the social condition of the world will warrant its being 
put aside. 

This book was written at the founding of an 
association that has since spread through the world 
under its name. It was further explained by the 
author's sub-title, "A League of Christian hearts 
united with the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to obtain the 
salvation of the world and the triumph of the Church. ' ' 
A continued series of writings in many languages, in 
succession to this first classical work, has been made 
possible by the propagation of this League through 
the periodical Messengers of the Sacred Heart. 

What is here given is the original work of Father 
Ramiere in exposition of the religious doctrines which 
are at the basis of all Christian prayer and association 
and union with the Sacred Heart of Jesus. As such 
it has a perpetual interest for all who desire to know 
their religion, and especially for the members of the 
clergy and religious communities whose office it is to 
understand clearly, and to explain practically to 
others, the great duties which are not for time but 
for eternity. 

The fitness of the author for his work may be 
seen from the briefest sketch of his life. His father 
was a judge at Castres, in France, where Henry was 
born on the ioth of July, 1821. His grandparents 
had suffered for the faith during the great French 
Revolution, and there was a tradition of lofty and 



4 . . 

Vlll 



intelligent piety in this Christian family of the old 
school. The young boy was carefully educated in the 
Seminary of his native town, and afterward in a 
Jesuit college. At the age of seventeen he entered 
the novitiate of the Society of Jesus, for which his 
fervor as a sodalist of the Blessed Virgin, during his 
college life, seemed to mark Him out. Besides the 
usual long training of the priests of his order, he had 
the advantage of following the special courses of the 
Sorbonne in eloquence. Ordained a priest in 1847, 
he was chosen for the Southern mission of the United 
States. To prepare himself rightly, he passed the 
four succeeding years in Stonyhurst College, England. 
There he taught theology and philosophy, until finally, 
instead of the missionary career of which he had 
dreamed, he was chosen to devote himself -to the 
higher theology in his own country. In the Scholas- 
ticate of Vals, where the Apostleship of Prayer had 
its origin as an association at the hands of the saintly 
Father Gautrelet, he was engaged for many years in 
this higher religious teaching, which he afterward 
continued in the new Catholic University of Toulouse. 
He counted out his full score of years in this labor, at 
the same time constantly exercising his pen in works 
of controversy and devotion. It would seem that his 
career had been specially ordered by Divine Provi- 
dence to prepare him for writing sublime and lumi- 
nous expositions of the vital points of the Christian 
religion. The burning eloquence of his own words 



« 

IX 



shows how closely he had bound up with his science 
that earnest devotion which alone can win from the 
Holy Spirit the gift of teaching mankind. 

It is now thirty years since the first edition of 
this truly great work was published. It immediately 
won a success all the more wonderful as its subject 
would seem to mark it out for scant popularity. 
On the 1 6th of April, 1862, Pius IX. bestowed his 
most special blessing in return for " the pleasure 
caused him by the zeal and tendency of the work. ' ' 
This was accompanied by brilliant testimonials of 
approbation from bishops and leading priests in the 
Church. Notable masters of the spiritual life and 
laymen engaged in the fierce onrush of Catholic con- 
troversy alike congratulated Father Ramiere on the 
work he had produced. 

The guide of his own mature spiritual life, Father 
Fouillot, who for years had trained the priests of the 
Society of Jesus in the ways of the spirit, wrote in 
exulting terms: "The work will make its way. 
Wheresoever it reaches it will bring forth apostolic 
fruit.' ' 

The intrepid controversialist, Louis Veuillot, 
turned aside from the dust and turmoil of his news- 
paper arena to write the following words; — "I read 
your book slowly, with much fruit and consolation. 
It is not a little thing for me to learn how to pray. 
If I make any progress in so necessary an art I shall 



owe it to you, and you will not lose by it. I desire 
ardently that your book should be widely spread. 
It would make us at once humbler and higher-spirited, 
two things of which we stand greatly in need. 
In proportion as we penetrate into these mysteries of 
prayer we form to ourselves a vaster idea of God's 
infinite goodness, our own wretchedness becomes 
more apparent to us, and yet we are uplifted by it." 
Still weightier words of encouragement came to 
him from a worthy Benedictine of Solesmes, a man 
known throughout the Church for his science and his 
piety. " It is a great misfortune for our times that 
the doctrines of religion are no longer explained after 
this fashion. Not only is the present generation 
deeply ignorant, but, what is more, because of this 
ignorance it wishes to learn nothing. It does not 
even come to mind to apply no matter how little 
attention when religion is spoken of. There is a 
desire only for vague commonplaces, for a faith built 
on air, and for sentimental emotions in which silli- 
ness and sensuality even have a good share, and from 
which the supernatural element disappears more and 
more. From this arise naturalism and the weakening 
of faith, and a vague religiousness that makes up the 
entire religion of a great number of worldly women, 
while the religion of the people is left more and more 
to superstition and mere words. Where is now the 
substantial and lofty teaching of the Fathers of the 
Church? Where are the scholastic and ascetic 



XI 



writers of the Middle Ages? For Heaven's sake, 
then, do not give way before the unintelligent pro- 
testations that will be made to you, but fallow out 
your sublime exposition of the doctrine of the Sacred 
Heart and of the communion of our souls in the 
same Christ.' ' 

On various occasions, Father Ramiere summed up 
in burning words the doctrine which he had under- 
taken to set forth in the present work, and which, 
until the hour of his death, he endeavored strenuously 
ta bring into practice by his direction of the League 
of the Sacred Heart. 

"The fundamental thought of the Apostleship is 
to blend with all our own sentiments those of Jesus 
Christ. They who strive to realize this in all its 
fulness know that, in the supernatural order far more 
than in the order of nature, strength comes from 
union, and they unite themselves closely together in 
order to promote more efficaciously this Apostleship, 
and along with it every other work which serves to 
God's glory. 

"It is not hard to understand the priceless 
advantages which cannot but result from such a union, 
of which the love of the Heart of Jesus is the bond 
and the desires of that Divine Heart the rule, and its 
end and aim His glory, while His almighty power is 
its prop and stay" {Messenger, 1862 y vi.). 

"The Apostleship of Prayer is, in substance, 
nothing else than the reproducing in ourselves of the 



Xll 

interior life of Jesus Christ, which the Venerable 
Olier looked upon as the very essence of the Christian 
and priestly life " {id., xvi.). 

And again (1861, 71): " Some time or other, 
in the silence of the sanctuary, you have listened with 
attentive ear to the speech of the Heart of Jesus. It 
cannot be that you have not heard Him saying to 
you, from the depths of His tabernacle, these burning 
words : / am come to cast fire on the earth, and what 
will I but that it be kindled? Oh, thought of sorrow ! 
thousands, millions rather of pious ' Christians daily 
receive into their breast this Heart of infinite love, 
this Fire of divine charity. Then they go forth into 
the world, to mingle there with Christians who are 
indifferent, with heretics, with unbelievers. Ought 
not they to spread around them these flames, and 
enkindle the coldest hearts with the love of their 
God?" 

The method of his writings Father Ramiere has 
himself well expressed {Messenger, 1877, I. 504) : 

" The theology of St. Paul is nothing else than 
a lofty exposition of the union of God's Spirit with 
the soul of the Christian. He shows us the Holy 
Spirit dwelling in the soul as in Its temple, making it 
live a divine life, giving it strength to strive against 
the inclinations of the flesh, communicating to it a 
wisdom infinitely higher than the wisdom of this 
world. The Holy Spirit inspires the soul with the 
sentiments of Jesus Christ, kindling in it the flames 



Xlll 



of divine charity, praying in the soul and teaching 
it to call upon God with the love of a child, deposit- 
ing in it the seed of eternal life and becoming to 
the soul the pledge of divine blessedness. ' ' 

From the foundation of the Messenger of the 
Sacred Heart in June, 1861, until his death, Father 
Ramiere was actively engaged in directing the work 
which, more than any other, he was to help to spread 
through the entire world. He lived to see a score of 
editions of the periodical organ of the League appear- 
ing in nearly a dozen different languages. Mean- 
while he was teaching as before, preaching and writing 
in reviews, making himself remarked at the Vatican 
Council, of which he was a theologian, for his fiery 
zeal in obtaining the consecration of the dioceses of 
the universal Church to the Sacred Heart — always 
compressing into his own one life the work of several 
apostolic laborers. On the 3d of January — the eve of 
the First Friday of 1884— heat last ceased from labor, 
dying in the peace of the Sacred Heart. 

Father Ramiere had instructed many to justice : 
may the reward also be his — to shine as stars to all 
eternity (Daniel, xii. 3). 

R. S. DEWEY, S. J. 
Feast of St. Leo the Great, 1889. 



I desire therefore first of all that supplications, 
prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for 
all men : . 

For this is good and acceptable in the sight oj 
God our Saviour, 

WJio will have all men to be saved, and to come 
to the knowledge of the truth. 

For there is one God, and one Mediator of God 
and men, the Man Christ Jesus : 

Who gave Himself a redemption for all. 

(I Timothy, ii.) 



INTRODUCTION 



Analysis. I. [General principle for answering difficulties 
against religion; particular answer regarding the grace suf- 
ficient for salvation, given to all men.] The mystery, seem- 
ingly scant fruit from Incarnation — a favorite blasphemy of infi- 
dels. 1st answer from St. Paul. His 2d answer the ground of 
this work, aiming practically at Christians praying for the salva- 
tion of all men as a prime duty. The Apostle's line of argu- 
ment : God wishes the salvation of all men, seriously, but not 
without their free co-operation. 

II. 1st conclusion : a world not Christian in opposition with 
GocTs will. Calvin's blasphemous imputation to God. Jesus 
Christ nothing, or the universal Saviour; His teaching in the 
Samaritan city. Not the design of Providence to save men 
without co-operation — the twofold Apostleship, of the Word and 
of Prayer. Examples : the Blessed Virgin and St. John at the 
foot of the Cross — the reason for the Church's being — the mission 
of the Apostles. This 1st lesson of St. Paul refutes Calvin. 

III. 2d conclusion: actual state of the world from the 
free will of man. Nature of God's co-operation with man's 
free will — the latter can refuse to carry out God's first design. 
Example, our Lord and Judas — the final triumph of God's 
glory — application to all men. St. Augustine on St. Paul, grace 
given to every man. God's mercy with many has ways mys- 
terious to us, to be known at the last day — meanwhile graces 
given to others to be reckoned from our own. This 2d lesson 
of St. Paul, absolutely, is sufficient to answer the infidel. 



IV. 3d conclusion, further condition laid down by Apostle, 
the duty of praying for all men because God wishes the salva- 
tion of all : hence, salvation depends on the free will of the one 
to be saved, but also on the zeal of others already in the way of 
salvation. An instance of the great law of human society, 
mutual influence. Example from the material universe, appli- 
cation to the moral world. Without this law, no true society, 
no real manifestation of the ineffable society of the Trinity. 
Essential relations of society with this law : God's impulsion of 
the moral world — man's co-operation an essential condition — 
man's power of resistance : hence, mutual dependence in the 
moral world. God's providing for each one in essentials not 
done away with — mutual influence adds superabundant means. 

This law a view of charity according to St. Peter — an 
obligation on all. Admission of this law resolves the entire 
problem : the world not yet Christian, not because of any plan 
on the part of God, [nor because of lack of sufficient grace 
given to each soul] ; but because of lack of co-operation with 
God's designs on the part of Christians. Examples : the 
Church, her entire work in this co-operation ; children of the 
Church not faithful, Arius, Luther, Calvin, Voltaire — counter- 
examples, Sts. Vincent de Paul, Teresa, Xavier ; present unbe- 
lieving philosophers, what if Christian ? Not only extraordi- 
nary men bound to this co-operation, but result chiefly to be 
expected from the great number — all men have this vocation — 
Providence relies on the zeal and prayers of common Chris- 
tians — glorious results wherever this is realized. This the 
chief co-operation asked by the Heart of Jesus — to explain this 
the object of this book. 



editor's note on DIFFICULTIES. S 



I. 

[The author, with the frankness of a Christian whose faith 
is complete and fearless, puts forth from the start one of the 
most striking difficulties of our religion. It is true this diffi- 
culty arises chiefly in imaginations sensitive to the attacks of 
the enemies of the Church. As put forward by the author it is 
fully answered in the succeeding pages — fully, that is, for the 
intellect. But the sensitive imagination may need to be turned 
aside to other considerations, when charges are so recklessly 
made against the holiness and goodness of Gcd by modern infi- 
dels. It is well, therefore, to add to the general answer made 
by St. Paul and quoted by our author, the broad principle laid 
down by Cardinal Newman: A hundred difficulties do not 
make one doubt ; also the sensible remark of an English priest 
who had received into the Church a notable number of con- 
verts : To every objection there is somewhere an answer. 

Besides this summary way of dismissing the difficulty, the 
ordinary teaching of the Church, when properly stated, gives 
entire satisfaction to the mind. God, in one way or another — 
how it matters not — gives to every man who has the use of 
reason a light and strength of grace sufficient for him to save 
his soul, if he will. This is the answer St. Teresa was used to 
make to herself when she found her imagination weighed down 
by the sad state of the world such as it must always appear in 
our narrow and incomplete knowledge of things : No one has 
ever been condemned unless he willed it, that is, by deliberate 
and mortal sin. Once this truth is firmly grasped the soul may 
go safely on to consider how far a more than sufficient, a super- 
abundant grace may be obtained for men by the apostolic and 
united prayers of Christians. This latter question, in its fulness, 



4 THE MYSTERY. 

is considered by the author. He too addresses himself to the 
imagination and heart of the Christian, but chiefly to reason 
enlightened by faith.] 

In the ways of God's Providence there is one 
mystery, if there is any, that is enough to disturb 
both the heart and the reason of man. It is the 
small number of the elect, the seeming barrenness of 
fruit of the Incarnation and of the sweat and blood 
of the Son of God. 

How are we to explain the relative uselessness of 
the Precious Blood which was shed in torrents? 
A single drop should have been more than enough to 
save a thousand worlds. How are we to recognize 
the action of Supreme Wisdom amid the confusion of 
monstrous errors, of gross vices, of impure and 
bloody religions? In the constant strife of passion 
and self-interest against principle and duty it is the 
latter that are wellnigh always vanquished. How is 
it possible for us not to stand in amazement ? The 
God Who shows Himself so generous to the meanest 
creatures, Who gives to the flower of the field the 
drop of dew that it may bloom and to the little ones 
of the raven their food, leaves so great a number of 
reasonable beings without the bread of truth, without 
the refreshing dew of the hopes of heaven. 

We must acknowledge it — this pitiful state of 
things is in sad contrast with the touching pictures 
given us in Holy Scripture of God's mercy, with that 
boundless love for men which brought the Son of 
Man down to earth and to the death of the cross. 



ST. Paul's first answer. 



As a weapon in its attack on Providence, impiety 
delights in making use of these incomplete results of 
the mission of the Incarnate Word. It is one of the 
favorite themes of its blasphemy, one of the points on 
which it relies with most success, for shaking the 
faith of weak or ignorant Christians. 

What answer shall we make to its scoffs ? Shall 
we remain mute before accusations that aim at noth- 
ing less than convicting Supreme Wisdom of having 
failed in the most perfect of Its works? Shall we 
seem to acknowledge by our silence that God, Whose 
very essence is His goodness, Who has shown forth 
His goodness with so great profusion in senseless 
creatures, has failed in regard to the only beings able 
to respond to His love ? 

God forbid we should be brought to so sad a 
necessity ! 

To these impious blasphemies we can, first of all, 
give an answer that admits of no reply. It is fur- 
nished us by the Apostle, when he exclaims : Oh, the 
depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knoivledge 
of God} What are we, to pretend to comprehend with 
our weak minds His incomprehensible judgments, to 
penetrate by our shifty reasonings into His impene- 
trable ways ? Could God be the Infinite One if an 
understanding so limited as ours were able to enter 
into all His designs ? Do we dare to make ourselves 
His counsellors, when day by day we stand con- 

1 Romans, xi. 33. 



st. paul's second answer. 



founded by the genius or the cleverness of our fel- 
lows ? Who hath forwarded the spirit of the Lord ? 
Or who hath been His counsellor and hath taught 
Him? 2 

This first reply is enough to confound the pride 
of human reason. It is the only one it deserves to 
receive, perhaps it is the best that could be made to it. 

But for the humility of the Christian heart which 
studies the designs of its God, not to sit in judgment 
on them but to fulfil them, faith has in store another 
answer as salutary as it is satisfactory. This answer 
will serve as a foundation to all the practical consider- 
ations developed in this work. It is found, implicitly, 
in the words of the Apostle which appear on our 
title-page. 

/ desire therefore first of all that supplications, 
prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for 
all men : . 

For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God 
our Saviour, 

Who will have all men to be saved, and to come 
to the knowledge of the truth. 

For there is one God, and one Mediator of God 
and men, the Man Christ Jesus : 

Who gave Himself a redemption for all. 7. 

These words comprehend three points. First, 
there is the Apostle's aim in practice, that Christians 

2 Isaias, xl. 13; Romans, xi. 34; Wisdom, ix. 13. 

3 I Timothy, ii. 1-6. 



HIS PRACTICAL AIM. 7 

should pray for the salvation of all men. Then he 
sets this duty before them as one of the very first of 
all. And he attaches so great importance to this 
observation that he is not content with pointing 
out their duty to them; he persuades, he desires 
them to apply themselves to it with all their strength. 
It is not a feeble or passing prayer that he so ear- 
nestly desires to see us sending up to God. It is a 
repeated entreaty, fervent, without ceasing, taking on 
itself every form that prayer can have, supplications, 
prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings. The Apostle 
speaks as do all those who are pierced through by 
some great thought and swayed by its masterful feel- 
ing. He heaps together like expressions and exhausts 
Christian speech, as if no words were enough to tell 
the importance and the extent of this duty which he 
desires to impress on us. This, once more, is his 
practical aim. It is also the aim which this book sets 
before itself, and the reader is already in a state to 
appreciate its importance. 

Most o/ all at this period of our work, if we are 
to clear up the frightful problem which we have to 
face, there is grave need of understanding well the 
reason on which the Apostle bases this great duty of 
prayer for the salvation of all our brethren. He says : 
This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our 
Saviour, Who will have all men to be saved and to 
come to the knowledge of the truth. And then, as if 
to anticipate the doubt and the distrust which the 



8 THE LINE OF ARGUMENT. 

feeling of his unworthiness causes to spring up in the 
heart of man, the Apostle gives us in a few words 
the most striking proofs of his comforting assertion. 
He tells us there is one God ; and this God being the 
Creator and Master of all men cannot but wish 
the happiness of his privileged creature. There is 
one Mediator of God and men, Jesus Christ, by 
nature the Son of God, and become the Son of Man 
by His own free choice; having taken us for His 
brethren He must also have taken on Himself the 
obligation of reconciling us with God His Father. 
Finally, this Divine Mediator gave Himself a redemp- 
tion for all ; and for the salvation of all He has paid 
ransom superabundantly. The love of God the 
Father for His Son is infinite ; and now that He has 
given Him to us as our Brother and our Saviour, 
now that He has accepted His blood as a ransom for 
the crimes of all men, how can He do else than wish 
the salvation of these men who are thus become His 
children ? 

This is the line of argument of St. Eaul. Every- 
one at first sight will grasp the resistless strength with 
which it holds together. It will be quite as easy 
for us to draw from it the explanation of the actual 
state of the world and of the great mystery of Provi- 
dence. 

For this purpose let us consider with a little 
more attention the different parts of the Apostle's 
discourse ; from the relation they bear to each other 



GOD WISHES MAN'S CO-OPERATION. 9 

the explanation we seek will be clearly seen. He 
tells us we must pray without ceasing for the salva- 
tion of all men, because God, Who has created all 
and has given to all His Son as their Saviour, desires 
the salvation of all equally. But with what will 
does God desire the salvation of all men? Doubt- 
less, it is a will serious and real \ it would be blas- 
phemous to suppose an insincere will in God. Does 
it follow that this will of His is so absolute, so effica- 
cious, that its execution is not left to the free co-oper- 
ation of His creatures ? Clearly not ; for if God 
willed our salvation in this way He would work it 
out alone, not waiting for our prayers. By the fact 
that the Apostle makes God's will the reason of pray- 
ing for its execution, we are taught that the salvation 
of the world is one of those works in which God 
asks and waits for the co-operation of His creatures. 
This evidently is the sense of the Apostle's words. 
To understand them otherwise would be to take from 
them all their meaning, and to make of them, instead 
of a reasoning as natural as it is solid, a series of 
incoherent propositions without any real sense. 

This is the clearing up of the mystery, and at 
the same time the revelation to us of our most 
glorious duty ; this too must result from those evident 
conclusions to which the Apostle's reasoning will 
lead us. 



10 FIRST CONCLUSION. 



II. 



The first conclusion we should draw is this : 

If the world is not yet Christian, if the great 
number of peoples, instead of walking in the way of 
light that leads to the mountain of Sion, wretchedly 
drag themselves along the miry roads of error and of 
vice, this pitiful state is so far from being the out- 
come of God's designs that it is, on the contrary, in 
open opposition with His will. 

The Apostle proves this truth to us in the man- 
ner most convincing ; to doubt it would require us 
to renounce our reason as men and our faith as Chris- 
tians as well. No man, unless passion sways him, can 
persuade himself that the wretched state to which we 
see a great part of mankind reduced can come from 
any design of God. For thus God, without other 
motive than that of using His all-powerful will, would 
refuse to a great number of His reasonable creatures 
the means of knowing and serving Him. 

Calvin dared to think this. He did not fear to 
say that, simply through His good pleasure, God has 
given up the greater number of men to damnation. 
But the common sense of mankind has treated this 
blasphemy as it deserved, and even the disciples of 
the blasphemer have entered their protests against it. 
Really, we cannot but understand that, if God is 
free to create or not to create, it is a necessity for 



calvin's blasphemy. 11 

Him to give the beings He creates an end worthy of 
Himself and according to their own nature. He 
would be wanting at once in wisdom, in justice, and 
in goodness, if He gave His reasonable creatures 
faculties that might reach the Infinite, along with a 
measureless need of happiness, and at the same time 
denied them the means absolutely necessary for gain- 
ing this only and essential object of their aspirations. 
If the errors and the crimes of men were the outcome 
of the wilful design of God, God Himself would be 
responsible for them. Consequently, He would 
cease to be holy, to be true, to be God ; and evil 
would no longer be evil. 

This our created reason easily discerns. But 
God Himself has made it known to us most touch- 
ingly, by the mouth of His Son, Who is His Word in 
the same Substance as Himself and His Uncreated 
Reason. This desire for our salvation has passed 
from all eternity from the bosom of the Father to the 
bosom of the Son. It is the divine seed, and the 
blessed fruit it has brought forth is the Incarnation. 
To doubt that God wishes the salvation of all men is 
to doubt not only the wisdom and the goodness of 
Jesus Christ, but even His existence. For Jesus 
Christ is nothing, or else He is the only and universal 
Saviour. 

In fact, what is the whole Gospel other than the 
expression of this will ? We find it on every page ; 
it is enough to cite a single instance. 

2 



12 our lord's teaching. 

One day our Divine Saviour had wearied Him- 
self without seeming aim. After a long journey He 
was come, toward the hour of noon, to the neighbor- 
hood of an unbelieving city. There He stayed His 
steps beside a well; and His disciples, seeing Him 
worn out with fatigue and hunger, went into the city 
to seek refreshment for Him. On their return they 
found Him speaking to an unbelieving woman, 
whose mind He had enlightened and whose heart 
He had healed, by means the most considerate and 
merciful. 

Master, they said to Him, take this food, of 
which You stand in need. I have other food, replied 
the Saviour, which your eyes as yet know not how to 
discern. And as they were astonished He added, 
My food is to do the will of My Father and to save 
souls. Behold these fields, covered with the fair 
growing crops. In three months, you say, the 
harvest-time will come. Ah, lift your eyes higher 
and behold, far away, how the whole world is but 
one vast field already ripe to the harvest. This field 
I am to sow in My tears. But to you and your 
successors I leave the joy of the harvest. For it is a 
true word — one is he that soweth, another he that 
reapeth ; and the labor is shared, that one day there 
may be joy in common. 4 

In such teaching Jesus Christ unfolds to us His 
Father's will, and the only aim of the mission He 

4 St. John, iv. 



THE TWOFOLD APOSTLESHIP. 13 

Himself has received from the Father, and the cause 
of the seeming want of success of His mission. To 
save souls, to bring back to the fold the wandering 
sheep, to bring home again all God's children scat- 
tered through the wilderness of this world, to spread 
the fire broadcast over the earth and utterly enkindle 
it with the flames of the love of God — this was the 
object of His desire, the work He had unceasingly 
before His eyes, to the fulfilment of which He sacri- 
ficed Himself without reserve. But it was not in the 
designs of Providence that He should accomplish 
this work by Himself alone. There must be others 
to work along with Him, and these co-workers He 
shall not find so long as He is on the earth. The 
food for which He hungers none will give Him. 
Lifted up on the Cross — the altar of His sacrifice — He 
looks out upon the earth and finds few souls that do 
not withstand all the attraction of His love. He 
leaves the earth with a cry of distress from His 
mercy poured out in vain — I thirst. 

This thirst for the salvation of all men the 
Church — there on Calvary in the persons of Mary 
and John and the Holy Women — will take to herself 
as her dearest inheritance. And to the successors 
of St. John and the Holy Women she will transmit 
it, that is, to the twofold apostleship which, until 
the end, shall share the fulfilling of the work of 
Jesus Christ — the priesthood of office and the priest- 
hood of zeal, the apostleship of the word and the 
apostleship of prayer. 



14 THE MISSION OF THE APOSTLES. 

God's will that all men be saved is therefore the 
Church's reason for existence, as it was the reason 
why Jesus Christ existed. In truth, Jesus Christ 
sent His Apostles as the Father had sent Him, with 
the same power, but also with the same end in view. 
He knows there is no other name than His in which 
the world, both the peoples and the individuals who 
compose it, can be saved. He has said that He is 
the corner stone, that all which is not built up on 
Him is doomed to fee overthrown. He is the way, 
and by no other can anyone draw near to His Father 
and reach the final rest of life everlasting. He is 
the vine, and all that brings not forth fruit in Him 
is to be cast into the fire. Therefore He sends His 
Apostles to the ends of the earth, that they may 
bring all men to Him. 

And He said to them : Go ye into the whole world, 
and preach the gospel to every creature. 

He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved ; 
but he that believeth not shall be condemned* 

Again He says to them : Stay you in the city 
until you be endued with power from on high} Then 
go forth, and you shall be witnesses unto Me, not only 
in Jerusalem and Samaria, but even to the uttermost 
part of the earth? 

Now we can see : to deny that God wills seri- 
ously the salvation of all the world and of each man, 
to endeavor to cast back on Him the responsibility 

5 St. Mark, xvi. 15, 16. 6 St. Luke, xxiv. 49. 7 Acts, i. 8, 



REFUTATION OF CALVIN. 15 

■ 

for the darkness that covers the great part of nations, 
is to deny the existence of the Church and the 
Divinity of Jesus Christ, it is to deny all reason and 
God Himself. 

This is the first lesson given us by St. Paul. 
It is not sufficient to resolve the sorrowful problem 
before us ; it is only enough to set finally aside the 
hateful imaginings of Calvin. But the whole ques- 
tion still remains behind. If it is not to the original 
design of Providence that we are to attribute the 
actual state of the world and the loss of so many 
millions of souls, to what shall we assign it ? 



16 SECOND CONCLUSION. 



Ill, 



The answer at once presents itself, it is naturally 
suggested by the Apostle's words. It is drawn from 
the liberty of man. 

We have said that the words of St. Paul would 
bear no explanation, if there was question of God's 
will, absolute and efficacious and to be carried out of 
necessity. In such a case no co-operation is asked 
apart from that of blind and inert causes. God 
commands the sun to give light, the rain to fall, the 
plant to bud forth ; and the sun shines, the rain falls, 
the plant buds, because neither the sun, the rain, nor 
the plant have any will which they can oppose to 
God's will. This is not the case with man. Man is 
free, and the fearful privilege of his liberty is pre- 
cisely in this: he can at will co-operate with God's 
designs or resist them, fulfil or frustrate the Divine 
will. It is true, he shall never overcome the Almighty ; 
he shall never prevent God from attaining His own 
ends, even through man's resistance. But it is none 
the less true that he can refuse his co-operation with 
God's original design and render ineffective a very 
serious will of his Sovereign Lord. 

Jesus Christ willed very seriously to touch the 
heart of Judas, when, in the Garden of Olives, He 
made him this affectionate reproach : Friend, where- 
to art thou come ? Dost thou betray the Son of Man 



man's freedom to resist. 17 

with a kiss ? % But Judas was free to resist. He was 
pleased to use for his ruin the freedom which would 
have given its entire merit to his repentance. Here 
then our Saviour's desire was really frustrated. No 
doubt Judas could not prevent his treason's turning 
to the glory of his Master, nor its being as helpful to 
our own salvation as his conversion would have been. 
This is the triumph of Divine Wisdom. But Judas 
really put an obstacle in the way of the fulfilment of 
God's designs on himself. 

Let us apply this, though in different measure, 
to all men. We shall then understand how it is pos- 
sible that God should very seriously wish all men to 
be saved, and yet, after so many centuries, the greater 
number are still out of the way of salvation. 

It is thus Augustine, Saint and Doctor, explains 
the Apostle's words : " Yes, God wishes all men to 
be saved, He wishes them all to come to the knowl- 
edge of the truth. But, however serious and sin- 
cere this will may be, it does not destroy the free will 
of those it seeks to save." 9 All men, without excep- 
tion, at certain critical moments of their life," 
hear the voice of their Father resounding in the 
depths of their soul and calling them to Himself in 
heaven. But it will always be in their power to 
remain deaf to the call, and to refuse to allow them- 

8 St. Matthew, xxvi. 50; St. Luke, xxii. 48. 

9 De Spiritu et Littera, xxxiii. 



18 god's mercy to all men. 

selves to be led by it. 10 All shall have their day of 
salvation, but not all will profit by it. 11 All shall 
feel themselves drawn to truth and goodness, not all 
will give themselves up to God Who draws them. 
Most of all since the Incarnation of the Saviour, has 
light living and plentiful been shed over the world. 
St. Augustine tells us once again : " Since the Sun of 
Truth has risen above the horizon, no longer can 
man rightly cast off on the darkness which surrounds 
him the responsibility for his wanderings. ' ' 12 

For the greater number of men, it is true, we 
cannot possibly find out the mysterious ways by 
which the Divine Mercy comes to them : their resis- 
tance wipes out every trace. Only at the great day 
of revelation shall we know the secrets of that inner 
striving of grace, of the work of God in souls that 
seemed the most forsaken by Him. He would be 
indeed rash and guilty who should bring forward, as 
an accusation against God's Mercy, the very resis- 
tance which men show to His endeavors, and the care 
they take to stifle His loving pleadings. Let a man 
be only sincere with himself, and he will see that if he 
is not a Christian and a perfect Christian it is not the 
fault of grace. Then let him judge others by him- 

10 Compare St. John, xi. 45-6 : [of the Jews who witnessed 
the raising of Lazarus from the dead by Jesus, many believed in 
Him — but some of them went to the Pharisees, .] 

11 II Corinthians, vi. 2. 

12 In Psalm, xviii. 7. 



VINDICATION OF GOD'S JUSTICE. 19 

self, and not push his folly and injustice so far as to 
pretend to extenuate the known crime of his own 
rebellion by the supposed innocence of the rebellion 
of another. 

This is the second teaching we can draw from 
the words of St. Paul. Strictly speaking, it is enough 
to solve our problem, and to vindicate God's Justice 
and reduce the unbeliever to silence. 



2* 



20 THIRD CONCLUSION. 



IV. 

Yet, let us acknowledge it, this answer does not 
give entire satisfaction to the instincts of our faith. 
In the presence of the wonders of Calvary and the 
Passion of a God dead to save all men, the Christian 
heart remains filled with sadness at the sight of so 
many victims of ignorance and error and corruption. 
We ask ourselves once again how it is that the wishes 
of the Son of God expiring on the cross have been 
till now so imperfectly realized. How is it that so 
many souls created in the image of the Trinity and 
redeemed by the blood of the Saviour remain stran- 
gers to this plentiful redemption, and have not more 
abundant means of salvation ? 

In this sorrowful perplexity let us again have 
recourse to God's Apostle. He will lead us to under- 
stand yet another condition which has been wanting 
until now to the entire fulfilment of the work of the 
Saviour. To realize it more faithfully would bring 
about the salvation of the world. 

In fact, what is it he tells us? That we should 
pray for all our brethren, because God wishes the 
salvation of all. What other meaning can this have 
than that the fulfilment of God's merciful will does 
not depend solely on the free co-operation of those 
it seeks to save? It depends also on the zeal, the 



THE LAW OF MUTUAL INFLUENCE. 21 

prayers, the endeavors of those who are already in 
the way of salvation ; it is they whom God calls to 
lead back their brethren. This is the final explana- 
tion of the pitiful state of the world ; it is also the 
secret of its future salvation. 

To understand both the one and the other, and 
to penetrate fully the thought of St. Paul we must 
go back to a sovereign law. This law, however 
mysterious it may seem when looked at in itself, is 
nothing less than the essential foundation of all 
human society. It is the only possible explanation 
of the great problems of the moral order. This law 
we take upon ourselves to call, in the lack of some 
settled name, the law of Mutual Influence* 

A glance at the material world may teach us the 
nature of this law. Our reason tells us that God 
is the first and the universal Cause of whatever exists 
and is done in the world, that not an atom may stir 
unless it has its movement from Him. And yet, 
wherever we turn our eyes, we can nowhere discern 
any trace of the immediate action of the Creator. 
Everywhere it is bodies that move other bodies. The 
sun attracts the earth ; and, in its turn, the earth 
attracts the bodies upon its surface. Water revives 

* The former translation made use of the term reciprocity ; 
but this in its proper meaning does not square with Father 
Ramiere's explanation of mutuality for which indeed he him- 
self substituted at times the words we have chosen. Mutual 
dependence expresses only a part of the law. 



22 MORAL WORLD LIKE PHYSICAL. 

plant-life, and plants give to man his food. It is 
light that shines upon him, water that refreshes him, 
fire that warms him. Thus God does everything, 
and He does nothing alone. His activity, which 
alone would surely be enough to reach from one 
extremity to the other, awaits the co-operation of 
His creatures, in order to put forth and communicate 
itself. And from this results the whole order af the 
visible world. For if God acted quite alone, if by 
Himself He brought every one of His creatures to its 
own special end, there would no longer be a bond 
of union among them, there would be no order and 
no universe. 

Thus the physical order altogether rests upon 
the mutual action of bodies on each other. The 
wondrous harmony that rules it is only the result 
of the faithfulness with which each one of the bodies 
which compose it transmits to other bodies the move- 
ment it has received. 

It is not otherwise with the moral world. The 
conations of its existence and of its harmony are 
quite the same. Here too there would be no bond, 
no union, and consequently no order, if the free 
wills, which are its elements, could reach their end 
and gain their perfect happiness independently of 
each other. Men would no longer owe anything to 
their fellow-men, and would have nothing to expect 
from them. They would pass by as strangers who 
know each other not. Charity, devotedness, abne- 



SOCIETY AND THE LAW. 23 

gation, and so many other virtues which are the 
glory of our nature, could no longer be practised. 
There would be no more society, for society is only 
a collection of free beings bound to help each other 
to some common end. That is, God's most beauti- 
ful work — that which most perfectly represents, by 
its unity and variety, by its end and action, the 
ineffable society of the Three Divine Persons — would 
have ceased to exist. 

This is what we understand by the law of Mutual 
Influence ; this is our meaning when we say that all 
human society rests on this great law. 

Between society and this law there is an essential 
relation. The possibility of society results from the 
power which souls have of acting on each other, 
according to the degree of authority, perfection, and 
energy with which they are endowed. The existence 
of society is the result of the obligation incumbent 
on them to help each other. Finally, the harmony 
of society is measured by the faithfulness with which 
this duty is fulfilled, and by the constancy with which 
each soul communicates to those coming after it the 
movement it has received from the Prime Mover. 

Assuredly too, in the moral even more than in 
the physical order, God is the principle of all move- 
ment, of all life, and of- all good. He gives the 
impulse to every will, and acts in every soul. He 
reaches from end to end of the moral universe ; He 
takes the guilty and degraded soul in the depths of 



24 CO-OPERATION AN ESSENTIAL CONDITION. 

its sin, and leads it to the loftiest height of perfec- 
tion and happiness. But although He acts every- 
where He acts nowhere alone. He wishes His crea- 
tures to share in His action, as they share in His 
being. Save in those rare circumstances where His 
Wisdom demands that He shall show forth the 
almightiness of His arm, He subordinates His own 
action to the co-operation of secondary causes. 
From this strict bond of union, from this constant 
dependence in which created beings stand with 
regard to each other, results their perfect unity in 
the midst of boundless variety. From this, too, 
it comes that the moral creation, much more than 
the physical creation, is the image of the Creator 
and the mirror of His Divine Beauty. 

Indeed, it must be plain to all that the power 
given to free causes to co-operate in the execution 
of God's designs in the moral order, as necessary 
causes co-operate with them in the physical order, is 
not only the essential condition of the existence of 
society and of God's glory in the world, but it is 
also the chief title of our own glory. By it we can 
acquire the right to be remembered by our Creator, 
and we draw nearer and nearer to His Divine like- 
ness. 

But remark with care, that a power like this of 
freely co-operating in God's work involves also, of 
necessity, the power of going against' it. When the 
Almighty subordinates the execution of His own 



MUTUAL DEPENDENCE. 25 

plans to the co-operation of our wills, He must con- 
sent to have them impeded by our resistance. The 
co-operation He allows us to give Him would be an 
illusion, if when we grant it we can expect no result 
that would not be quite as secure in case of our deny- 
ing it. Clearly there would no longer be mutual 
dependence, which is the same as to say, there would 
no longer be any society. What would become of 
the duties of paternity, if a father were sure that the 
completest forgetfulness of duty on his part would 
bring about no harm to his children ? What motive 
could we have to labor for others, if we could pro- 
cure them no advantage which they would not pos- 
sess quite as well without us ? 

It is now evident that this law of mutual influ- 
ence, this dependence in which men stand toward 
each other, this power they have of communicating 
or refusing to each other the advantages of the moral 
order, is like a double-edged sword. Rather, it is 
like the weapon which mythology gave Achilles ; it 
has alike the power of wounding and of healing. 
The day we came into human society found us clothed 
with the power of bringing our fellow-men nearer to 
God, or of driving them from Him. A philosopher 
has said that not an atom is set in motion in the uni- 
verse without a consequent movement being felt to 
the farthest extremities of space. This may be diffi- 
cult to conceive in the physical order, but it is an 
evident truth in the moral order. We are bound to 



26 NECESSARY AND SUPERABUNDANT MEANS. 

our fellow-men by continual relations, seen or unseen ; 
and we cease not to depend on them as they depend 
unceasingly on us. We can increase, beyond all 
reckoning, their means of salvation ; but we can 
also diminish them to a degree beyond all our power 
to determine. 

Without doubt, God can refuse to no free will 
the strictly necessary means for avoiding evil and 
doing good. He is obliged to furnish, as we have 
already said, such means that even men the most 
abandoned by their fellow-men may have them at 
their disposition, at least during certain periods of 
their passage on the earth. But it is r not the same 
with the superabundant means of salvation brought 
down to men by the Incarnate Word. Providence, 
Which does all things with order and weight and 
measure, demands that these shall be given, for the 
most part, only in society, that is, only >by the free 
co-operation of their brother-men. 

Besides, when looked at in its right light, this 
law of mutual influence is simply one side of the 
great law of Charity, in which the whole moral order 
is summed up. Before all things have a consta?it 
mutual charity among yourselves, St. Peter tells us. 13 
This precept is addressed to all men. All, without 
any exception, are in duty bound mutually to wish 
each other good. But why, unless because they are 
able to do real good to each other? God cannot 

is I. iv. 8. 



FINAL SOLUTION. 27 

oblige us to what is impossible, and the first of the 
commandments cannot be a mere barren precept. 
Therefore we can do good to each other, from the 
fact that we are in duty bound to wish good to each 
other. But the further fact that we are free to fulfil 
this duty shows too that we are able to deny our 
fellows that good which they have a right to expect 
from us. Even we can do them evil. 

Once the law of mutual influence is granted, the 
great problem we have set before ourselves can no 
longer give us any difficulty. 

The universe is not yet Christian. There are 
so many peoples as yet imperfectly sharing in the 
fruits of the Incarnation. True, but it is not in 
God's plan that they should be shut out from this 
banquet which His Wisdom has prepared for all men. 
It is because the Divine Wisdom has not found, in 
those who were first called, a co-operation devoted 
enough to pass on to their less fortunate brethren the 
advantages they themselves enjoy. It is true the 
Church has never ceased to proclaim this great duty. 
She could not do so without being false to the mis- 
sion she has received, in one of its most essential 
portions. To every generation of her children she 
repeats over and over the bidding of the Apostle; 
again and again she renews his urgent entreaties. 
When she bestows on her ministers the priestly char- 
acter she recalls to them that, together with the obli- 
gation of feeding the faithful sheep, is joined the duty 



28 CHRISTIANS DO NOT CO-OPERATE. 

of bringing back the wanderers to the fold. She has 
never suffered them to forget that the whole world 
has been given as an inheritance to her Divine 
Spouse, and her duty is to bring Him into possession 
of His inheritance. 

Much indeed is wanting in order that the 
Church's recommendations be carried out as fully as 
might be, and that the power of giving life to souls 
be actively exercised by each of those in whose hands 
such power ought to produce the most wonderful 
effects. The Church has not ceased to labor and to 
pray for the salvation of souls. But how many, 
among her own children, have refused to unite their 
labors with her labors and their prayers with her 
prayers ! On the contrary, how many on whom 
have been bestowed the highest gifts of genius and 
strength and authority, will not understand the obli- 
gation, incumbent on them from their high standing, 
to co-operate more fully in God's work; but instead 
they choose to use for the ruin of their fellow-men 
the very faculties received for his salvation ! A still 
greater number, with less brilliant qualities, take no 
care to make them of any use ; they believe they do 
enough for God and society when they do not, like 
the others, turn the talents given them into instru- 
ments of ruin. The cause of God and of souls has 
been unworthily betrayed by His servants, at the 
very time it was attacked by His enemies. Yes, this 
is why the world is not yet Christian, why it is still 



LUTHER AND ST. FRANCIS. 29 

so far from being so. This is why, out of a thousand 
millions of men inhabiting the earth, more than half 
know not the Saviour. It is because those who have 
known Him hitherto have not understood as they 
ought the power and the obligation which they all 
have of passing on the light to others. It is because 
they have not taken seriously to heart the weighty 
words which sum up all their social duties : God 
gave to every one of them commandment concerning his 
neighbor}^ 

This truth becomes apparent by an example. 
Let us take three or four of the men whose influ- 
ence over the destinies of mankind has been at once 
the most powerful and the most pernicious, such as 
Arius, Luther, Calvin, Voltaire: Let us ask ourselves 
what would be the actual state of the world if these 
men had consecrated to the service of mankind the 
talents and influence which they so unhappily prosti- 
tuted to the spread of error. Let us picture to our- 
selves Luther, with his strong imagination, his ardent 
soul, and the attractive impetuosity of his speech, 
traversing Germany to awaken the people from their 
slumbers, to draw the clergy from its ignorance, and 
everywhere to work the true reform of public morals. 
Imagine, in one word, Luther understanding and 
fulfilling his mission in the sixteenth century as 
St. Francis of Assisi understood his mission in the 
twelfth. Suppose, too, that like a new St. Dominic 

14 Ecclesiasticus, xviii. 12. 



30 EXAMPLE OF THE SAINTS. 

or a new St. Louis, Calvin and Henry VIII., in 
France and in England, had, for the same cause, 
used the means at their disposal. What good fortune 
for the Church, what a force for bringing into her 
bosom all the new peoples w T hich daring discoverers 
were daily making known ! 

But let us now make quite another supposition. 
Let us take those vessels of election, those souls of 
heroes who gave themselves up without any reserve 
to the action of grace, suffering it to work in them 
and through them great things — a Vincent de Paul, 
a Teresa, a Xavier. If they had refused to divine 
charity that co-operation which in reality they so 
generously gave it, how much less to-day would be 
the sum total of good upon the earth ! For notice 
well, the sum total of good would not only have been 
lessened by the immediate fruits of their labors, but 
by the fruits far more considerable which were borne 
by those whom they left behind them. Who can 
state the full outcome, direct or remote, of the 
action of these great Saints? Who can reckon the 
spiritual posterity to which their speech, their labors, 
their prayers, their examples have given the life of 
grace? Who can measure the immense void in the 
hosts of the elect, if instead of becoming heroic chiefs 
these had turned out raging foes ? 

Alas, we cannot put aside a thought of bitter- 
ness ! There are proud men of science who set up 
their vain systems in opposition to the teachings of 



OBLIGATION OF EVERY MAN. 31 

the Church, and make of the number of souls still in 
error a subject of accusation against the truth. How 
many of these philosophers, perhaps, might have 
been other Xaviers, destined by God to become, for 
their own glory and the salvation of their brethren, 
a living refutation of such sophisms ! 

But we ought not to forget that, not to extraor- 
dinary men alone, has the power been given of 
helping on or impeding the plans of God. This 
power belongs in some degree to every man, no 
matter how weak or obscure he may be. All are 
bound to help in their own measure to the salvation 
of the world. Their influence will not be exercised 
like that of a Xavier, with the force of a headlong 
torrent dragging everything along with it on its way; 
but it will at least be like one of those drops of rain 
that fall one after the other on a day of storm, and 
end by causing the rivers to leave their banks and to 
overflow the country round. It is the unfaithfulness, 
then, of a great number of Christians who pass their 
lives in selfishness and ease, quite as much as the 
cowardly refusal of a few great souls, to which we 
must assign the partial inutility of the Church's 
efforts to save the world. Chosen souls will never 
be wanting in a society of which the great mass is 
on fire with zeal. The enkindling of great numbers 
makes heroes to start forth ; and the great deeds of 
heroes, backed by the less brilliant courage of other 
soldiers, are God's means for the salvation of nations. 



32 the christian's apostolic calling. 

Perhaps you who read these lines have never 
even dreamed that you were clothed with the power 
of saving the souls of your brethren, that you were 
called to become the helper and co-worker of your 
God. Yet nothing is more real than this high apos- 
tolic calling, which cannot be separated from your 
calling as a Christian. I do not know in what 
measure Providence designs that you should help in 
this great work. I do not know if you are to be like 
the rapid river of which the Prophet speaks ; pro- 
ceeding from beneath the threshold of God's house, 
it soon spread over the plain and brought into 
bloom, along both its banks, a forest of majestic 
trees. Perhaps you are rather to be like the dewdrop 
which God sends down, in the midst of the wilderness, 
on some plant unheeded of men. But, whether 
brilliant or whether lowly, your calling is certain, you 
are not destined to save yourself alone. You must 
not be in heaven without children ; for it is written 
of the flock of the Good Shepherd — He has no sheep 
barren among them. 1 ' You too must share in the 
blessings promised to the man who fears the Lord : 
on the day of the eternal banquet he shall see children 
as olive plants, round about his table.™ And every 
man shall receive his own reward according to his own 
labor ; 17 not according to ability, nor to the natural 
fruitfulness of a man's will, but according to the 

15 Canticles, iv. 2. 16 Psalm cxxvii. 3. 

* 7 1 Corinthians, iii. 8. 



PROVIDENCE RELIES ON CHRISTIANS. 33 

humility and prayer that accompany seeming barren- 
ness. This I know full well, this I believe firmly, 
because the Spirit of truth tells me so ; and you too 
cannot doubt it, since you as well as I give ear to the 
consoling utterance. 

On you then God's Providence relies to defend 
His cause, to give back answer to the blasphemies of 
impiety, by acts far more eloquent than all words. 
It is for you to prove that, if the world unto this day 
has been so evil and souls have been so sick, it is not 
because God has no serious will to save the world and 
because the blood of Jesus Christ is lacking in virtue to 
heal the wounds of souls ; but it is solely because God 
will not save men without men, and because it has 
pleased Him Who alone is the universal Saviour by 
His own power, to grant to subordinate saviours the 
merits and the glories of His redemption. 

How beautiful a day shall shine upon the world 
when this design is understood \ when all the 
chosen souls to whom God has given in higher degree 
so sublime a calling, in the midst of a society sunk 
in disorder and confusion, shall be what, in the 
world's first days, were those living germs which the 
Word of God had hidden in the bosom of inert 
matter ; when they shall place all their influence at 
the service of the Life Which has chosen them as Its 
instruments, and shall draw all that surrounds them 
to themselves, transforming by their warmth of zeal 
the most hardened elements and spreading from 



34 THE CALL OF THE SPIRIT. 

neighbor to neighbor the divine contagion of good, 
and making to disappear before the fruit-bearing heat 
of their charity the ice of selfishness and the barren- 
ness of its too long winter. Would not this be a new 
creation ? But on what does it depend that a crea- 
tion, so long promised, begins not at once ? Society 
is deluged with errors and with vices. Is it 
because the Spirit of God" does not brood over the 
muddy waters as in the first days of the world ? Ah, 
if the Spirit found Its instruments, how blessedly 
would It show forth that Its power is ever the same, 
that Its fruitfulness has suffered no decline ! Will 
you not hearken to It conjuring you to give back Its 
glory? 

And now, what shall be your answer ? Will not 
you follow this glorious calling ? Will you suffer the 
light that shines before your eyes to be quenched ? 
Will you consent to see the loss of the poor souls 
who await their salvation from your hands ? Must 
the Heart of your God give up the hope It has con- 
ceived of finding in you a helper ready to gather in 
the harvest He has watered with His blood, and to 
scatter abroad the fire He came to cast upon the 
earth ? Are not eighteen centuries of waiting and of 
barren endeavor enough ? 

You may say that you have at your disposition 
neither authority, nor eloquence, nor yet fortune or 
any other of the means of influence which allow a 
man to exert powerful action over his fellows. But 



PRAYER THE CO-OPERATION ASKED. 35 

such an excuse is not to be tolerated. It is based on 
m error, of which it is the end and aim of the 
present work to disabuse minds. This book is to 
prove that the most powerful of all means of influ- 
ence is at the disposition of all Christians, that .all 
can set it at work, even in situations the least favor- 
able and at every moment of their existence. Not 
all have the art of speech ; not all have strength for 
labor; but all may at least desire, and consequently 
all may pray. And by the ardor of their desires, by 
the fervor and the constancy of their prayers, they 
may obtain the grace that saves souls, and give help, 
real and efficacious, to the Divine Love that ceases 
not to labor for their salvation. 

It is this co-operation which the Heart of Jesus 
asks from you. If you consent to grant this to Him, 
if the fruits and the merits of so easy an apostleship 
can only vanquish in your heart all resistance on the 
nart of selfishness and all inaction from indifference, 
then, thanks be to God, the task this book has set 
before itself will not prove difficult. The instinct of 
the heart will supply its insufficiency of words. 



First Tori* 

On the Nature of the Apostleship of Prayer, and 

the Sources of its Power. 

THE APOSTLESHIP OF PRAYER, 
A League of the Heart of Jesus. 

CHAPTER L— First Source: Prayer. 

" II. — Second " : Association. 

" III. — Third " : Union with the Heart 

of Jesus. 



" The Apostleship of Prayer was founded on the 
3d of December, 1844, at the feet of the ancient 
sanctuary of Our Lady of Le Puy, in a seminary that 
was sending forth year by year numerous apostles to 
all the countries of the world. In the beginning this 
work had no other aim than to put before these young 
men, under the restraints of the obscure life of 
community, a means of exercising their zeal in union 
with the Apostleship, itself very obscure yet very 
powerful, of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. For in the 
annihilation of His holy tabernacle, He is saving 
the world.' ' 

Father Ramiere 1 s Introduction to first 
Messenger, 1861. 



THE APOSTLESHIP OF PRAYER, 
A League of the Heart of Jesus. 

The very name of this pious work is indication 
enough of its mainspring, its chief means of action, 
the weapon with which it arms all those whom it 
enlists in the holy crusade designed to bring about 
the triumph of God's cause in the world: — it is 
prayer. 

But prayer here finds a power which the fervor 
of each individual Christian taken alone could never 
give it : — this power is to come from association. 

Such association must have a bond of union. 
This league of prayer must have a leader. Who is 
capable of being the leader in a crusade undertaken 
for the salvation of the world ? What is capable of 
being the bond of union among hearts united 
together in order to bring down grace by their 
prayers ? Only the Heart of Jesus, Who without 
ceasing prays in the holy tabernacle that divine 
grace may come down to us from heaven. 

Thus, prayer, as a universal means of action ; 
association, as a sovereign condition of the power of 
prayer ; union with the Heart of Jesus, as the foun- 

39 



40 NATURE OF THE APOSTLESHIP. 

tain-head of life in association : these are tne 
elements to which such an apostleship must owe its 
strength. These too are the points of view from 
which we shall look at the work, in the different 
chapters of this first part of our book. 

To set forth these points of view in their full 
light, we have simply to develop the words of the 
Apostle which have served us as a text. The work 
of the Apostleship itself is nothing else than putting 
them in practice. What did St. Paul ask so urgently 
from the first faithful, and in their person from all 
future Christians? Prayers for the salvation of all 
men. And does he ask that such prayers shall be 
offered up to God by individuals separately? No, 
they are to be prayers offered by all in common, prayers 
sent forth from the hearts of all, uttered by the lips 
of all, and mounting up to heaven like those vapors 
which rise together from every point of ocean, 
to shower down fertility on the dried-up fields of 
earth. But again, is the prayer of all in common to 
be merely human prayer? No, it is to be prayer 
offered through the only Mediator of God and men, 
it is to become divine by passing through His Heart. 
These are the desires of the Apostle. The Apostle- 
ship of Prayer is but the realizing of these desires. 



CHAPTER I. 

FIRST SOURCE OF POWER: PRAYER. 

Analysis. The resurrection of dead souls to life. 

I. Grace, the life of the soul. Definition of grace. Man 
to share God's bliss, and not a mere happiness proportioned to 
his nature — this supernatural blessedness a recompense to merit 
of works done through grace — hence, grace the beginning of 
glory. A new creation uniting the soul with the Trinity — a new 
faculty — the title of adoption as children of God. Grace gives 
divine life to the soul, so that it may produce divine acts. 
Grace not a mere privilege, but necessary for man's happiness 
in the present order. Experience shows that only the grace of 
Christ preserves from evil and inspires good. The privation of 
grace the soul's death — grace a gift of God alone — when lost its 
recovery must be from God's mercy. God's call to the dead 
soul is actual grace — an indispensable condition for regaining 
sanctifying grace. Graces obtained by the prayers of others. 

II. Power of prayer for obtaining grace , derived from the 
nature of grace. Definition of Prayer. God's goodness and 
man's weakness — prayer the only condition exacted by God. 
Grace like the air we breathe — need of opening the mouth. 

III. Power of prayer for obtaining graces necessary to 
our neighbor. Prayer the fittest means of co-operating with the 
work of grace in other souls. All natural means impotent — 
prayer works with God — fulfils conditions of co-operation, action 
with reliance on God — efficacious from its relation with the 
Creator. A different co-operation from preaching and the 
Sacraments — compared with these — example of Xavier. Mutual 
help, in one society, of the children of God. 

IV. Power of prayer proved from the words of our 

41 



42 



Saviour. Prayer in the Scriptures. Teaching of our Lord — 
unlimited promises made in favor of prayer. St. Paul — parables. 

V. Our Saviour's promises apply to prayer made for 
salvation of our neighbor. Power of prayer for our neighbor — 
objection from St. Augustine. I. Principle of St. Thomas: 
necessity of praying for what we desire in the supernatural 
order — hence, equal obligation of praying for and desiring the 
salvation of others — an obligation of charity. 2. The precept 
included in the promise, under ordinary conditions — the promise 
unlimited — our Saviour's own teaching in the Lord's Prayer. 
3. Explanation of objections from Scriptures and the Fathers — 
resistance of the will to graces obtained by the prayers of others 
— example of Monica and Augustine. Application. 

VI. Our Saviour's promises apply to prayers offered by 
sinners. Definition of merit — preference to prayers of the just. 
Power of prayer, not like merit from sanctifying grace, but from 
actual grace — hence, sinner's prayers efficacious. The reason 
in the nature of man as God's creature. 

VII. Power of prayer proved by the teaching of the 
Saints. The Apostles — early Christians — St. Francis Xavier. 

VIII. Practice of the Saints — our LoroTs example. In 
the Old Law, Moses, Abraham, Aaron, Josue, Elias, Eliseus — 
— in the Church, feasts of the Holy Cross, Rosary, etc. ; various 
Saints ; punishment of Arius, the Albigenses, modern England ; 
recent associations of prayer — apostolic Saints. The early 
Church, Apostles and Blessed Virgin — our Lord at Nazareth. 

IX. Inefficiency of our prayers — necessary qualities. 
Personal merit of prayer — delay of answer. Obstacles, lack 
of necessary qualities : 1. Faith and confidence — teaching of our 
Lord; 2. Humility — Pharisee and Publican — Angel Gabriel to 
Prophet Daniel, to Blessed Virgin ; 3. Perseverance — teaching 
of St. Augustine — of St. Thomas. 

X. Summary. 



The Apostleship's Power from Prayer. 

From the start, we find ourselves in the very 
heart of our subject. There is question of nothing 
less than to prove to Christians that they are endowed 
with a power, miraculous and without limit, which 
for the most part they seem not to dream of even. 
There is question of proving to them that they can 
all share in the divinest privilege of the Almighty, 
in the power of giving life to souls and of giving life 
back to souls when they have lost it. There is ques- 
tion of showing to them that the exercise of this 
power is within the reach of the weakest and 
wretchedest among them all. 

Suppose that there was somewhere, within reach 
of all, an easy means of raising the dead to life, and 
that the greater number of men did not even suspect 
its existence. Would not he be doing useful work 
who should spread abroad the knowledge of it, and 
prove its power ? The Providence of God has refused 
such a means of resurrection with regard to the pass- 
ing death of the body. But it has put means in our 
hands for delivering our brethren from the second 

3* 43 



44 THE RESURRECTION OF DEAD SOULS. 

death, from that death of the soul which, of its own 
nature, is eternal. The most part of Christians, no 
matter what they may believe in theory, act as if they 
were persuaded that this great power of bringing 
souls forth from their tombs is the special privilege 
of the chosen and select race of the sanctuary. This 
shows that they understand neither in what the life 
of the soul consists, nor by what means it is spread 
and restored. How can we be astonished that there 
are so many dead souls in the world, that the whole 
earth is but a vast graveyard wherein soul-corpses 
lie forsaken ? Are not the greater number of those 
whom God has clothed with the power of bringing 
back all these dead souls to life, quite unsuspecting 
of the lofty mission given them? Our endeavor 
must be to draw them from their deadly ignorance, 
or from their forgetfulness which is not less deadly. 
Let us briefly bring to mind the sublime teachings 
of faith. Let us show that the life of the soul is 
grace, that the all-powerful means of bringing down 
grace into souls is prayer. 



DESCRIPTION OF GRACE. 45 



Grace the life of the soul. 

Grace ! Is there a Christian who has not heard, 
thousands of times over, this word sounding in his 
ears ? Is there one who has not himself said it over 
a thousand times ? For all that, alas ! to how many- 
hearts the grace of God is riches and strength and 
hope, while the name of grace awakes in them but 
a vague and ill-defined notion. And yet, after God, 
there is nothing more important for us to know than 
grace, which unites us with God and makes us like 
unto Him. 

What then is grace? It is a free gift, high 
above all the gifts of nature, above all the lights of 
genius and the intoxications of pleasure or glory or 
power, above the possession of all worlds, above all 
enjoyment of happiness, however perfect and how- 
ever lasting, which can exist in the merely natural 
order. It is a share in the light and love, in the 
very nature of God. 1 It is the means given us here 
below to merit the enjoyment of the blessedness of 
God in heaven. It is God's life begun in time, to 
have its completeness in eternity. 

Had God so wished, He might have destined us 
to enjoy during eternity a happiness measured to our 

1 That by these you be made partakers of the divine nature. 
II. St. Peter, i. 4. 



46 GRACE, THE BEGINNING OF GLORY. 

nature. But, out of His absolutely free choice and 
the excess of a love that we have in no wise merited, 
He has thought it good to call us to the enjoyment 
of His own bliss, that we may see Him as He sees 
Himself and love Him with His own love, and be 
filled with the fulness of His divine pleasures, so as 
to make up with Him, through the eternal years, 
a perfect society of life and joy and glory. 

On His part, God has destined us for this divine 
happiness freely and out of His own good pleasure. 
But it is not to be given us freely. It must be 
a reward, not an almsgiving. Our own dignity, as 
well as the glory of our Creator, demands that, 
together with Him, we shall work out our destiny. 
It is therefore necessary that, during the time of our 
trial, we may be able to merit this blessedness of 
God ; that each of our works here on earth may have 
its worth in eternal goods ; that, consequently, our 
works may have a value infinite in its way. By 
themselves they cannot have this worth ; and so 
grace has been given us to make up for the insuffi- 
ciency of our nature. 

Grace then in the Christian soul is the begin- 
ning of the glory of heaven. It is the life of God 
communicated in its strength before it is granted in 
its unutterable sweetness. It is, as it were, a new 
spirit created in man, in virtue of which the soul 
already begins to know God as He knows Himself; 
not yet of course by the clear vision of His splendor, 



BY GRACE CHILDREN OF GOD. 47 

but by the inner hearing of His word. Already, too, 
the soul loves God with that love with which it shall 
love Him in Heaven, that is, with a love which is 
a share of God's own love. Grace, then, like glory, 
is a society closely uniting the soul of the Christian 
with the Divine Trinity. Through it our under- 
standing is united with God's Word and our will 
with His Holy Spirit, by a union so close that, after 
the ineffable union which makes but a single Person 
of the Son of God and Jesus Christ, it is impossible 
to imagine any other more real or closer. It creates 
in us a new sense — the perception of God. By it we 
understand divine things, which are otherwise as 
unintelligible to the animal man as light and color 
would be unintelligible to the poor wretch deprived 
of sight. 4 By grace we become truly the children of 
God, and we gain the right of calling Him our 
Father, in a meaning infinitely more real than that 
which comes from our creation by Him. Creation 
has made us His servants, rather than His children. 
It is only by grace that we are brought into His 
household and become His lawful heirs. 5 

Such is grace looked at in itself and in its source. 
It is for our soul what our soul is for our body. Our 

4 The sensual man perceiveth not these things that are of the 
Spirit of God, for it is foolishness to him and he cannot tinder- 
stand, because it is spiritually examined. But the spiritual man 
judgeth all things. I. Corinthians, ii. 14, 15. 

5 If s§ns, heirs also. Romans, viii. 17. 



48 GRACE GIVES DIVINE LIFE. 

body, from its union with the soul, has a life which 
it could never have of itself — a life that lifts it up 
from a purely material nature, to make of it a living, 
and in a way a reasonable, that is, a human body. 
So too our soul, from its union with God, receives 
a life which it could never gain by its own strength, 
and this life lifts it above itself, making it to share in 
the divine nature and giving it the power of eliciting 
acts that are truly divine. 

But let one thing be well understood. God has 
called us to become His children, and He has willed 
that His own Son should become our Brother — The 
First-born amongst many brethren} Henceforward, 
this divine life of grace, which lifts us so far above 
our nature, becomes a necessary condition to us. 
After this life there is no happiness we can expect 
other than the supernatural glory of heaven. In the 
same way, here on earth we cannot make pretence to 
any virtue or any spiritual life other than that which 
is the outcome of our union with God by grace. 
If God had so willed, the different elements that go 
to make up our bodies might have been parts of the 
body of some animal, or even of a tree or a stone. 
Then they would have been subjected to other laws, 
and might have fulfilled more lowly destinies. But since 
our soul has taken hold on them, to share with them 
its own life, they have no choice but to live this life, 
which is higher than their nature, or else to perish. 

6 Romans, viii. 29. 



GRACE A NECESSARY CONDITION. 49 

They must share in the dignity and happiness of a 
reasonable soul, or they must fall lower than the 
animal, lower than the stone and the tree which has 
died, and be given over to the most hideous and 
offensive of all corruption. It is the same with our 
souls in regard to God. If the soul had not been 
raised to so high a dignity, if the Creator had not des- 
tined it to share His own bliss and His own life, it 
might have aspired to a happiness nearer the level of 
its nature. Not being lifted up so high, it would 
have escaped the danger of falling so low. But as it 
is, this is man's lot : for eternity, either heaven or 
hell, that is to say, the everlasting bliss of God or 
the everlasting torments of the devils ; and for the 
time of our stay on earth, either grace or sin, that is 
to say, the life of God or the death of the soul. 
It is a hideous death, leaving in the poor soul no 
natural strength sufficient to hold out long against 
the onset of evil ; and it makes the soul the play- 
thing of the evil spirit, a thing hateful to God and 
repulsive to itself. 

This is what faith teaches us, and this too, 
with an evidence unhappily but too clear, is proved 
to us by the history of the past and the experience of 
the present. ■ 

Vainly indeed shall we seek, apart from the grace 
of Jesus Christ, for a fountain of life powerful enough 
to keep our souls undefined from the allurements of 
evil and the contagion of vice. What has humanity 



50 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF SOULS'. 

been at every period of its existence, what unhappily 
is it still to-day? Naught but a vast desert wherein 
the Church appears to us as a fountain of living 
waters, scattering everywhere in their course faith and 
love and self-denial and mutual devotedness, every 
great virtue and every great work. But in the 
measure in which men turn aside from this stream of 
grace, from this influence of Jesus Christ, you see 
understandings darkened and whole peoples becoming 
material; while souls and societies fall a prey to a 
death that is so much the more hideous as the powers 
of the souls were loftier and the civilization of the 
societies more advanced. 

Now we know what is the life of souls ; and we 
know in what lies their death. The life of souls is 
union with God by His grace, an ineffable union 
making them to share in His light and love and life, 
and thus preparing them to share one day in His 
blessedness and glory. The death of souls is priva- 
tion of this life, a fatal privation which involves the 
loss of all life useful to salvation and of all right to 
the happiness of eternity ; while it also entails slavery 
beneath the yoke of evil spirits and shameful passions. 

Once we understand the nature and laws of the 
life of souls, we understand also the beginning of such 
life. And we know by what way it can find entrance 
once again into souls that have lost it. 

The life of God can come only from God. 
Vainly would he, for whom Divine Mercy had not 



THE WORK OF ACTUAL GRACES. 51 

destined it, build up a new tower of Babel or, like 
the fabulous Titans, heap up mountains on mountains, 
to find this life at the gates of heaven. Vainly, to 
merit it, would he bring to his aid every resource of 
the vastest genius, or heroic endeavor and the accom- 
plishment of great deeds and appalling sacrifices. 
The discoveries of genius, the endeavors, the deeds, 
the sacrifices of men, are all human ; they are conse- 
quently out of all measure with grace, which is a gift 
truly divine. 

Thus, it happens that a soul to which God has 
given His grace casts grace away by an abuse of its 
free will. But it can never regain what it has lost 
until God's mercy shall draw near to it, even as Jesus 
Christ drew near to the sepulchre of Lazarus, calling 
on him, ordering him to come forth from his tomb. 
Without this free call of God's mercy, it would be 
infinitely more impossible for a soul dead to grace to 
recover it, than for a corpse already in corruption 
to come back to life. Such a call of God's goodness 
to the soul walled up in the tomb of sin, the invita- 
tion by which He urges it to shake off its corruption 
and to come forth from vice, the inspiration by 
which He strives to give back to man the breath of 
life He had breathed into him from the beginning, 
but which sin has quenched, — belongs to that order 
of helps which are called actual graces. 

It is plain that actual grace is indispensable, in 
order to regain sanctifying grace which is the life 



52 PRAYER OBTAINS ACTUAL GRACES. 

of the soul. Without it the just man is incapable of 
performing any work useful to salvation ; and with- 
out it the sinner cannot but remain in death. Would 
we know how far it may have been put in our power 
to give to our fellow-men the life of grace, the life 
of the soul, the life of God ? We have only to ask 
what power we have to win for them actual grace. 
Now, to this question Holy Scripture and Catholic 
tradition reply by a teaching as certain as it is con- 
soling. With a unanimous voice they affirm that it 
is in our power to obtain for our brethren, as well as 
for ourselves, the most powerful graces. For this 
we have a means easy and efficacious and infallible ; 
this means is prayer. 



DESCRIPTION OF PRAYER. 53 



II. 

The power of prayer to obtain grace, drawn from the 
very nature of grace. 

There is hardly need of proving that prayer is 
an easy means of obtaining grace. 

For what is prayer ? It is nothing else than the 
expression of a desire, the feeling of some need 
humbly manifested to God. What is easier than to 
desire? What less painful to the needy one than to 
feel his need, and to manifest it to Him Whom he 
sees disposed to aid him? If this world's goods 
were to be bought by a mere desire, poverty would 
have fled long since far from the earth. The pass- 
ing bell would be heard no longer if, to escape 
death and banish sickness, it were enough to desire 
health. We can scarcely imagine how God reckons 
the priceless gift of His grace, the sharing in His 
life and happiness, at so cheap a rate. Yet, however 
much we may wonder at it, we cannot deny that it 
is so. A more careful consideration of our position 
toward God will show us that it cannot be otherwise. 

God is infinite power and goodness. Man is 
naught but poverty and weakness. And, if the 
All-Good would give Himself to our poverty, if 
the Almighty would lift our weakness to His own 
level, what conditions must He impose ? He cannot 
demand that man should go a part of the way, so 



54 PRAYER, THE ONLY CONDITION EXACTED. 

long as he is incapable of a single step. No, God 
must ask one thing only of man — that he acknow- 
ledge that he is but weakness, so that he may not 
afterward credit himself with the glorious wonders 
which the Almighty shall work in him. Infinite 
riches will ask of our poverty only that it shall recog- 
nize its own utter want, by feeling and expressing its 
needs, so as to be enabled to fill it with gifts. 

Prayer then is the only condition which it befits 
God's generosity to exact from His creatures, in 
order that they may receive His Heavenly gifts. 
He has given them the obligation of living a life as 
far above the strength of their will as it surpasses all 
their understanding. He can no longer impose upon 
them, as a condition previous to the reception of 
this life, anything else than the expression of a 
desire for it. Even then it is necessary that He 
should help, for the forming of this desire, the abso- 
lute powerlessness of His creatures. 

The air of heaven is more essential than any 
food to our physical life. Unless it refreshes our 
lungs and renews our blood at every moment, the 
whole machinery of our organism ceases to act, our 
heart beats no longer, and the death-struggle begins. 
Yet the air, which is so necessary to us, is the least 
within our grasp of all the elements. Has not Provi- 
dence in some way been wanting, in thus depriving 
us of every natural means of providing ourselves 
with this necessity of life, which we cannot do with- 



GRACE LIKE THE AIR WE BREATHE. 55 

out for an instant ? Let us see what an All-Fatherly 
Providence has done. Just because the air is the 
most necessary and the least easy to lay hold on of 
all things that sustain life, so it shall be the common- 
est and the easiest of all to procure. To have wheat, 
you must cultivate the earth. For water, you must 
at least reach out your hand. But to have air, it is 
enough to open the mouth and empty the chest ; and 
thereupon the air, impelled by that love of God 
which preserves and moves all things, forces its way 
into our lungs, gives fuel to our blood, and renews 
our life. At the beginning of our existence we 
should have been incapable of guessing the need of 
air and the kind of movement we ought to go 
through in order to take it in. But God makes us 
perform this movement by a blind instinct, for which 
we can give no reason but the infinite care of His 
Fatherly Providence. He takes it on Himself to 
see that our organs move so long as, by some act of 
foolishness, we do not set ourselves against this kindly 
and self-preserving action. 

In this we find a striking likeness to what passes 
in the moral order. For the life of our soul also, the 
air of heaven is necessary. But it is not the air of 
the lower and material heavens, which are the dwell- 
ing-place of the birds. It is the air of the upper 
heaven, of the true heaven, of the heaven of spirits. 
It is the air of which the Blessed live, and the Angels, 
and God Himself. Far more than the air of our 



56 NEED OF PRAYER TO LIFE. 

earthly atmosphere is this divine air beyond the 
reach of our own pursuit, not to be grasped by any 
efforts of our own. Yet without it we can do naught 
here below save to struggle through a fearful agony, 
soon to give ourselves up to everlasting death. What 
means have we of escaping this danger ? Ah truly, 
a means in everything worthy of our Father's good- 
ness ! The divine air of grace shall not wait until 
we follow after it, vainly endeavoring to lay hold 
upon it. It shall surround us like an ocean into 
whose depths we are forever plunged. It presses 
itself upon us for our life's support. No sooner do 
we open our mouth, 1 no sooner do we empty our heart 
to give it room, by the lowly acknowledgment of 
our nothingness and the fervor of our prayer, than 
its bounty rushes in upon us under the infinite press- 
ure of our God's mercy. And it shall keep life in 
us so long as we do not foolishly take this life by 
persisting in the real moral suffocation which follows 
on the refusal to pray. 

This, once again, is what God asks, in order 
that He may give us the life of His grace. Let us 
acknowledge that, if He could scarcely ask more, 
He also could not ask for less. His wisdom, His love, 
the esteem and respect He has for our dignity, 8 do 
not suffer Him to treat us like the irrational creatures 
to which He gives, without any co-operation on their 

7 Psalm cxviii. 131. 

8 With great reverence Thou disposest of us. Wisdom, xii. 18. 



PRAYER THE EASIEST CO-OPERATION. 57 

part, whatever is necessary to their preservation. 
The glory of man, we have already said, is to be 
along with God the worker of his own destiny. He 
can do nothing unless God goes before him with 
His grace; but God's grace also, qn its side, can 
work in him no meritorious act, unless he gives it 
his co-operation. Merit would no longer be merit, 
if it were gained by an involuntary act. Hence it 
would lose all that makes it glorious alike to God and 
to man. And everyone can see that, of all the dif- 
ferent kinds of co-operation which we are able to 
give to God's grace, the easiest, that which costs 
least, that which is most within reach of every 
understanding and every weakness, is the freely 
expressed desire of grace, the lowly acknowledg- 
ment of our powerlessness — prayer. 



58 NATURE POWERLESS IN SUPERNATURAL WORK. 



III. 

The power of prayer for obtaining the graces necessary to our 

neighbor. 

Prayer is also the kind of co-operation best 
suited to help on the work of grace in the souls of 
our brethren, making us the helpers of God in their 
regeneration. 

Indeed, it is clear that our own natural energies 
can in no wise help to the success of a work so 
entirely supernatural. 

Let science draw near to a tomb, in all the 
strength of her most wonderful inventions and with 
the weapons of her most highly perfected apparatus. 
Let her apply to the cold and lifeless corpse her 
most subtile fluids and most powerful reagents. She 
may perhaps be able to start up a few convulsive 
movements that, for an instant, one might take to be 
signs of life. But at the end of a few moments the 
corpse would again become motionless and rigid ; 
and the work of death, far from being delayed by 
these idle experiments, might only be hurried for- 
ward. This is because the life of the human body is 
not a mechanical or chemical force, nor a fluid more 
or less subtile. Its life is the rational soul. Once 
this soul has departed from the body, it is not in the 
power of science to bring it back, whether from 
heaven or from hell, into its prison-house of clay. 



PRAYER WORKS WITH GOD. 59 

For a yet stronger reason, it is not in the power 
of human science and eloquence to bring back to the 
soul the life of God, of which it has had the misfor- 
tune to be deprived. Science may be able to show 
the necessity of such life. Eloquence, by its vivid 
pictures and overpowering transports, may produce 
in the sinner's heart some passing emotion, and lead 
him perhaps to conceive some feeling of horror for 
his unhappy state. But to make him understand the 
possibility of a return to the life of (Tod and to 
inspire in him the sweet hope of regaining this life, 
above all, to give him strength to overcome the 
obstacles that sever him from it— eloquence can never 
do this by itself; for this is infinitely above the power 
of men or Angels. The life of the soul is God \ and 
there is only one power able to give back God to the 
soul, it is the power of God Himself. 

We cannot, without God, have work in the 
regeneration of our brethren. But, with God, Ave 
can work for it with much fruit. Yes, our infinitely 
merciful Father, Who loves all the works of His 
hands, and Who loves souls more than all His other 
works, 9 has given us an all-powerful means of bring- 
ing back life to the souls which have lost it. This 
means is prayer. 

9 For Thou lovest all things that are, and hatest none of the 
things which Thou hast made. . . . But Thou sparest all : 
because they are Thine, O Lord, Who lovest souls. Wisdom, 
xi. 25-7. 

4 



60 CONDITIONS OF CO-OPERATION WITH GOD. 

Prayer perfectly fulfils every condition of the 
co-operation which God wishes to have from us in 
the work of our brother's salvation. For, on the one 
hand, He wishes our co-operation to be active, con- 
stant, devoted. He demands that we shall aid each 
other in reaching the sublime end for which He has 
created us. He obliges us to love our brethren just 
as He obliges us to love Himself, these two duties 
making but one. He will not have us persuade our- 
selves that^ve are sincerely devoted to His interests, 
unless we labor with all our strength to make Him 
reign in the souls which constitute His true kingdom. 
And He is not willing that we should imagine we love 
ourselves truly, unless we love our neighbor as our- 
selves, that is, unless we labor for his salvation just as 
we labor for our own. 

But, on the other hand, God desires that the 
co-operation we are to give to His grace for the 
salvation of our neighbor, should be of such kind as 
to leave to Him all the glory of this work — the 
divinest of all His works. Therefore, we must make 
all our strength serve to this end ; but we must apply 
it in such wi^e that our action shall seek in God alone 
its power and fruitfulness. 

Prayer realizes these conditions after a wonderful 
manner. When we pray God for the salvation of our 
brethren, we are able to make use of all that is in us 
of energy and charity and zeal. At the same time 
we declare, by the very fervor of our prayer, that we 



PRAYER SATISFIES DIVINE WISDOM. 61 

are fully persuaded of our own powerlessness, since 
from God alone we await the spirit of life that shall 
bring forth from their tomb those souls for which we 
pray. 

To this wondrous mingling of strength and 
humility, prayer owes its boundless power over the 
Heart of God \ for it is these two qualities that allow 
of His being glorified in His creatures. He has 
given us a certain amount of power, clearly with the 
design that we shall make use of it. Yet He can 
never suffer us to act as of ourselves alone, and all 
the glory of our works must be turned back to Him. 
Because prayer perfectly satisfies these two demands 
of Divine Wisdom, it obtains all things from Divine 
Goodness. For it must not be forgotten that the 
resistless impulse of Supreme Goodness is to give, to 
pour Itself forth without measure. It is an infinite 
ocean of light and life and bliss; and It ever tends 
to send forth Its floods upon all that can receive 
them. Only our pride and our faithlessness can bar 
the way to Its outpouring. But as soon as prayer 
comes to overthrow this double barrier, Divine Good- 
ness will fulfil, beyond the measure of abundance, all 
our desires. 

Thus, in a very true sense, prayer will make us 
the saviours of our brethren. Nothing of His glory 
will be taken from God, and it will put us in the way 
of a most efficient co-operation with Him in the 
greatest of all His works. 



62 THE DIFFERENT APOSTLESHIPS COMPARED. 

Of course, there is another kind of co-operation 
that God may ask from chosen souls. He may call 
certain men to be His ministers, to give forth, accord- 
ing to rites of divine institution, that grace which 
the prayers of their brethren have brought down 
from heaven. To others He may entrust the minis- 
try of the Gospel, making of their words, as it were, 
a channel through which the torrents of His love and 
light may be shed abroad upon souls. To others, 
again, He may choose to give yet other gifts. These 
different ministries make men, in a higher sense if you 
will, the co-workers of God and His representatives 
on earth. They confer a higher dignity; but of 
themselves they give no merit that is to be compared 
to that of prayer. It is impossible to win grace for 
others without obtaining it at the same time for one- 
self; while, unhappily, it is but too easy for a priest 
to distribute grace among the faithful without keep- 
ing the least little share for himself. The Apostle- 
ship of Prayer brings with it naught but graces ; the 
Apostleship of the Word and of the Sacraments, 
along with great graces, brings also a great responsi- 
bility. 

Even from the point of view of its efficiency, 
the former is in many ways superior to the latter. 
For the Apostleship of the Word, at any one time, 
can be exercised only toward a very small number of 
souls. It is bounded by limits of time and space. 
True, a burning zeal may have great power to stretch 



THE ONLY MEANS OF WORKING FOR ALL MEN. 63 

its bounds, a Xavier may make his words heard to 
the furthest lands and regenerate his millions of souls. 
Yet, like the ocean whose vast reach met its equal in 
his zeal, he was sure at the last to expire upon that 
shore where God had marked out for him the end of 
his course. But the Apostleship of Prayer breaks all 
bounds, and withdraws itself from every restraint of 
time and space. Its action may be exerted at one 
and the same time in the opposite extremities of the 
world. It can reach out even to the end of time. 
It reaches whithersoever God's power reaches. The 
Apostleship of the Word is the medium through 
which God gives out His grace to souls. But the 
Apostleship of Prayer, in union with the prayers of 
the Divine Mediator, makes use of this all-powerful 
medium that it may work out in souls its own holy 
desires, which God has inspired. 

It is clear that such an apostleship is the only 
means in our power for fulfilling the obligation 
imposed on us of loving all men as ourselves, and of 
laboring with fruit for the salvation of all. Between 
the efficacy of this means and the universal charac- 
ter of this duty there is a necessary bond. If God 
had not given us the one, He could not have bur- 
dened us with the other. If prayer did not put us 
in a condition to give effective help to men, even to 
those we have never seen and shall never know here 
below, God would have been obliged to limit the 
commandment of charity to those men whom we 
should meet along the path of our exile. 



64 AN ESSENTIAL OF CHARITY AND UNITY. 

Plainly 3 this doctrine of the limitless power of 
prayer, far from being one of the side- teachings of 
the Christian religion, is on the contrary a part 
of its foundation. On it depends the boundless 
scope of the great commandment of charity. Yet 
more, on it rests the very unity of the society of the 
children of God, since there is no society among 
reasonable creatures except inasmuch as they actually 
help each other to reach their end. 



THE TEACHING OF SCRIPTURE. 65 



IV. 

The power of prayer proved from the words of our Saviour. 

All that we have said thus far only proves the 
power of prayer by analogy and reasoning. The 
analogy, of course, is plausible ; and the reasoning is 
based on the surest teachings of our creed, while the 
connection seems to be without a flaw. Yet we must 
acknowledge that such proofs can never take the 
place with us of more positive assurance. 

The power assigned to prayer is very wonderful ; 
and very amazing is the privilege by which a wretched 
and sin-stained creature becomes able to draw down 
the life of God into his own heart and into the hearts 
of his brethren, and at his pleasure to bring upon the 
earth not only the rain and fire of heaven, as did 
Elias, but the dew of grace and the flame of divine 
charity. All this seems so incredible that we cannot 
be dispensed from establishing the reality of such a 
privilege by the most authoritative proof and the 
exact words of God Himself. 

Eternal thanks to Divine Goodness ! there is 
nothing in the world easier than the production of 
such proof. There is scarcely a teaching in the whole 
Christian revelation that is more clearly laid down, or 
more frequently repeated, or surrounded with greater 
light of evidence. Our only difficulty is to choose, 
from among the great number of divine declarations, 



GG our lord's word. 

prophecies, promises, comparisons, parables, heaped 
together by the Holy Spirit in the books of the Old 
and the New Testament, that which may best per- 
suade us of this consoling truth. God foresaw that 
the very sweetness of this doctrine and the quite 
divine power with which it tends to clothe us, would 
raise up against it distrust on the part of our unworthi- 
ness and resistance from our cowardice and misery. 
For this reason He has left nothing untried in order to 
break down this obstacle, the greatest and in fact the 
only one that might hinder the execution of the 
merciful plans He has over us. 

We will not linger for the present on the earliest 
manifestations of this power of prayer. We will 
listen to none of the glorious testimonies borne by 
patriarchs and prophets to this doctrine. Let us pass 
over the ages, through all the shadows of the Old 
Law, and come at once to the full day of the Gospel. 

The Word of God, Who is Incarnate Truth, in 
order to give us to understand what prayer can do, 
uses all the resources of His divine eloquence and 
every solemn phrase that human speech can furnish. 

He has bidden us be content to say Yea and Nay, 
without formal additions. And when there is ques- 
tion of teaching us this capital truth, He cannot thus 
content Himself. And yet again, if ever anyone 
had a right to be believed simply on His word, it was 
surely He to Whom error and falsehood are infinitely 
more repugnant than darkness to the light. But 



THE PROMISE UNLIMITED. 67 

a mere affirmation is not enough for Him, He must 
needs add His oath : Amen, Amen, I say to you : 
if you ask the Father anything in My name, He will 
give it you. 10 

Are not these words clear enough to solve every 
doubt, and powerful enough to conquer all our dis- 
trust? Can anything be wished for, plainer or 
stronger? After this, can the power of prayer be 
called in question without calling in question God ? s 
own truthfulness? 

It should be noted, too, that it was not under 
ordinary circumstances and in a passing way that our 
Divine Master pronounced these words. It was the 
eve of His Passion, just after He had instituted the 
Sacrament of the Eucharist. He has left them as a 
part of the discourse after the Supper, which He 
bequeathed to us as the testament of His love. In 
this discourse He comes back again and again to this 
unlimited power of the prayers which we shall offer 
in His name, as being the most precious legacy of all 
His inheritance. 

Not only shall the Father glorify His Son, by 
granting whatever we ask in the name- of this Son 
well-beloved ; but the Son, to glorify His Father, 
shall take His pleasure in listening to every desire 
that has His Father's glory for its object. Whatso- 
ever you shall ask the Father in My name that will I 
do: that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 11 This 

10 St. John, xvi. 23. ll St. John, xiv. 13. 

4* 



68 PRAYER AND THE TRINITY. 

is as much as to tell us that He will take upon Him- 
self after His ascension the obligation of listening 
to our prayers, just as He imposed upon Himself 
during His mortal life the task of procuring by every 
means the glory of His Father. This is to be His 
work in heaven, just as His work here on earth was 
to labor, to - preach, and to surfer. 

Between the Father and the Son, therefore, there 
will be, as it were, a divine rivalry, when there is 
question of listening to our prayers. The Son will 
make haste to help us with all His power, in order 
to continue His work in us and visibly to glorify His 
Father in His members, as He glorified Him in His 
own Person during His mortal life. On His side, 
God the Father has become indebted without measure 
to His Divine Son because of the glory He reaps 
from His Incarnation; and He will make it His 
happiness to pay over to Him this debt, in the persons 
of all whom He finds ready to unite themselves with 
the work of the Incarnate Word. And God's Spirit, the 
common Love of the Father and the Son, will make 
it His pleasure to satisfy in our souls every demand 
of this wondrous rivalry. For the Holy Spirit is the 
beginning of our prayers, and He too is their fruit. 
It is He who inspires them in us, and He carries 
them out. He is present in us, and in us He shows 
forth a fruitfulness that does not belong to Him in 
the bosom of the august Trinity. He will make it 
His pleasure to glorify in us the Father through the 



st. paul's testimony. 69 

Son and the Son through the Father, and thus give 
back to the other Divine Persons something of the 
glory He receives from Them. 

On a foundation that can never be shaken, that 
is to say, on God's explicit promise, we have thus 
established the all-powerful efficacy of prayer. 
Already we have a right to that sweet sense of undis- 
turbed security which is enjoyed by all those who 
rest their hopes on the truth and the goodness of the 
Almighty. Thus St. Paul says: 12 God, meaning 
more abundantly to show to the heirs of the promise the 
immutability of His counsel, interposed an oath : 

That by two immutable things, in which it is 
impossible for God to lie, we may have the strongest 
comfort, who have fled for refuge to holdfast the hope 
set before us. 

We might content ourselves with such an assur- 
ance: But our Divine Master, in His mercy, was not 
willing to stop here; so let us not be wearied in 
gathering up the sweet pledges He has given us of 
His infallible aid. 

On His divine lips, promises are turned to 
entreaties. It is no longer He Who is our bene- 
factor; it seems that we do Him service when we 
implore His goodness. Listen to His urgent appeals : 
Hitherto you have not asked anything in My name. 
Ask and you shall receive, that your joy may be full. 
And again : Ask, and it shall be given you ; seek, 

12 Hebrews, vi. 17, 18. 



70 THE WITNESS OF THE PARABLES. 

and you shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened to 
you. These words are clear enough, but He adds, in 
order to make them yet stronger : For everyone that 
asketh, receiveth : and he that seeketh findeth, and to 
him that knocketh it shall be opened. 13 

Is not this positive enough ? No, by an argu- 
ment the most tangible, by the most striking of all 
comparisons, He must needs remove from our minds 
even the last trace of doubt and tear from our hearts 
the least root of distrust. What man is there among 
you, of whom if his son shall ask bread, will he reach 
him a stone ? Or if he shall ask of him a fish, will he 
reach him a serpent? Who would not see the point of 
these comparisons ? But our Saviour will not give 
us the trouble of applying them ourselves. Listen to 
what follows: If you then, being evil, know how to 
give good gifts to your children, how much more will 
your Father Who is in Heaven give good gifts to them 
that ask it? u Does not this tell us that we cannot 
doubt of the efficacy of prayer, without offering the 
crudest insult to our Heavenly Father — to " the good 
God ' ' ? For it supposes Him to be worse than the 
worst among ourselves. 

Elsewhere He goes further still in His unspeak- 
able condescension. He accepts a supposition that 
so outrages Him, He will even grant us that we 
believe Him worse than ourselves. But what He 

13 St. John, xvi. 24; St. Luke, xi. 

14 St. Matthew, vii. f 



CONDESCENSION OF OUR LORD. 71 

will not allow us is that we should doubt of the 
efficacy of prayer, even in this supposition which is 
absurd a thousand times over. Which of you, He 
says to us, shall have a friend and shall go to him at 
midnight, and shall say to him : Friend, lend me three 
loaves, because a friend of mine is come off his journey 
to me, and I have not what to set before him : — And 
he shall answer and say : Trouble me not, the door is 
now shut, and my children are with me in bed ; I can- 
not rise and give thee. — Yet, if he shall knock, I say to 
you, although he will not rise and give him because he 
is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise 
and give him as many as he needeth. And I say to 
you : Ask, and it shall be given to you : seek, and you 
shall find : knock, and it shall be opened to you. 15 

Another time He does not hesitate to compare 
God His Father to an evil judge, that He may thus 
far outstrip the extremest unreason of our distrust. 
A poor woman comes to ask for justice. The judge 
closes his door upon her; and the victim of his 
injustice knocks. They do not open to her, they 
pretend not to hear. She keeps on knocking loudly 
and so long that, wearied out, the wicked judge 
decides to do her justice. 

The only possible meaning of these parables is 
that our prayers, if we unweariedly persevere in them, 
shall have an efficacy beyond fail, even though they 
were not based, as they are, on the infinite justice and 

w St. Luke, xi. 



72 POWER OF PRAYER INFALLIBLE. 

the infinite goodness of God. Even, too, were there 
question of making Him modify the wonted order of 
His Providence, or of constraining Him to change 
general laws in our favor and to uplift and stretch 
forth His arm, our prayers shall still have this power 
if they are animated by faith and continued with 
unshaken patience. 



ST. AUGUSTINE S OBJECTION. 73 



V. 

Our Saviour's promises extend to prayer offered for the salva- 
tion of our neighbor. 

We cannot, however, pass over a difficulty that, 
no doubt, has already presented itself to the mind of 
more than one of our readers. Does this unfailing 
power, guaranteed by our Saviour to trusting and 
persevering prayer, belong to prayer offered for our 
neighbor as well as to that which we offer for our- 
selves? 

If we had regard only to certain words of St. 
Augustine, or even of Holy Writ, we might persuade 
ourselves of the contrary. 

In truth, in the Holy Scriptures we hear how 
God, provoked by the crimes, and the obstinacy in 
crime, of the children of Israel, said to His prophet : 
Do not pray for this people, and do not withstand Me, 
for I will not hear them. . . . If Moses and 
Samuel shall stand before Me, My soul is not towards 
this people. Even more plainly St. John tells us, in 
his First Epistle, that there is a sin unto death, so 
that our prayers cannot obtain forgiveness for it. 16 
St. Augustine, also, sets up a difference between the 
prayers we offer to God for our own salvation and 
those we offer for the salvation of our neighbor. The 

16 Jeremias, vii. 16, xv. I; I. St. John, v. 16. 



74 FIRST PRINCIPLE, FROM ST. THOMAS AQUINAS. 

first, according to him, are heard without fail ; so too 
are the others, but not always in their full extent. 17 

To solve this difficulty, and to bring before our 
mind an exact statement of Catholic teaching on this 
important point, we must lay down certain prin- 
ciples. 

i. — First of all, with St. Thomas, let us have it 
clearly understood that whatever ought to be an 
object ot desire on our part in the supernatural order, 
ought also to be for us an object of prayer. For every 
good thing that belongs to this order, is beyond the 
reach of our own efforts and can come to us only 
from God ; and only by demanding it from God by 
prayer, can we realize the desire which it awakens 
in us. 

Beyond all doubt, therefore, just as it is our 
rigorous duty to desire the salvation of all men, so it 
is a like rigorous duty to pray in order to obtain it. 
That we should desire the salvation of our neighbor 
it is impossible to doubt, if we but remember that 
such a desire is one and the same thing with the love 
of our neighbor, which is the second commandment 
and the completion of the law. From this we ought 
to come to the conclusion, with St. Thomas and 
St. John Chrysostom, that as necessity obliges us to 
pray for ourselves, so charity obliges us to pray for our 
neighbor. And as charity is our first duty and our 
chief recommendation in the sight of God, we can- 

17 Tract. 102 in Joan. 



SECOND PRINCIPLE, FROM THE PRECEPT. 75 

not doubt that God attaches yet more value to the 
prayers we offer Him for the salvation of our brethren 
than to those we send up for our own salvation. 18 

2. — Thus prayers offered to God for our neigh- 
bor's salvation enter into the designs of our Lord. 
They are nothing else than the carrying out of one 
of His most urgent precepts, now then can we 
doubt that they too are comprised in the solemn 
promises He has made us, of listening to us — whatsoever 
we shall ask the Father in His name ? Remark well 
that His promise is without limitation. Our Divine 
Master, in the different circumstances in which He 
repeats this, places indeed certain conditions to its 
unfailingness. He demands that our prayers should 
be made in His name, that is to say, they should rest 
on His merits and relate to our soul's salvation, 
which is the only end of His coming on earth. He 
wishes that they should be made with entire faith and 
unwearied perseverance. But, once He has laid 
down these conditions, I nowhere see that their 
efficiency is narrowed by any other limitation. On 
the contrary, our Divine Master everywhere makes 
use of the most universal expressions. All that you 
shall ask with faith shall be granted to you. All that 
you shall ask My Father in My name I will do. 19 
It would be like giving our Saviour the lie, to take 
away from His promises in favor of all our prayers, 

18 St. John Chrysostom, Homily 4 [op. imperf.) in Matth. 

19 St. Mark, xi. 24; St. John, xiv. 13. 



76 WITNESS OF THE LORD'S PRAYER. 

those prayers which we are bound to offer for our 
brethren ! If these prayers were mere works of 
supererogation, or if we might make them or not just 
to satisfy some pious whim of our charity, then it 
might be understood that we have not the same 
assurance and cannot claim the benefit of promises 
so consoling. But we have seen that these prayers, 
as much as, yes, even more than others, are imposed 
upon us as an obligation and are inspired by our 
Lord. They too must be heard without fail. 

This conclusion is very simple and very evident. 
Yet we have a proof still more imperative of our 
Saviour's intention to include in His promises prayers 
made for our neighbor, as well as those which we 
offer for ourselves. According to St. Luke, He has 
attached His promise especially to that prayer which 
He Himself has taught us — to " the Lord's Prayer." 20 
Now, in that prayer, it is for all our brethren, quite 
as much as for ourselves, that we ask of God graces 
for soul and body, for time and for eternity. This is 
pre-eminently the prayer. It is the prayer God the 
Father hears most willingly, because in it He recog- 
nizes the voice of His Son. It is like a document 
signed by our Saviour's hand, which God cannot fail 
of honoring. And this prayer binds together with 
ourselves all our brethren. For all the children of 
God, present and yet to be, it asks the coming of the 
kingdom of their Father, their daily bread, their 

20 St. Luke, xi. 



FROM FREE WILL. 77 

deliverance from sin and from all evil. Over the 
entire earth, in every place and at all times, it desires 
to see the doing of th? will of God, which is the 
sanctification of men. We can no longer question 
the fact — prayer for our neighbor's salvation is not 
less -efficacious than that which we offer for our own 
salvation. 

3. — How then are we to explain the texts of 
Scripture and of the Holy Fathers which seem to 
deny to prayer for our neighbor the unfailing power 
which they grant to prayer for ourselves ? 

The explanation is easy. 

In the salvation of men, which is the aim of 
these prayers, there are two things to be clearly dis- 
tinguished : God's work and man's work. God's 
work is to predispose the sinful soul by a supernatural 
light that enlightens it on- its unhappy condition, and 
by an indeliberate movement of the will which impels 
it to come forth from its present state. But when 
grace has performed this first part of its task, it waits, 
before completing it, until the soul freely yields con- 
sent to the merciful offer made it. By the fact that 
such consent is free, it is in the power of the soul to 
give or to refuse it. Doubtless it is in God's power 
to obtain it in spite of all resistance, if He so wishes ; 
but the laws of His Providence demand that He shall 
very rarely make use of this power, which is mirac- 
ulous. 

It is Just here our prayers for the salvation of our 



78 OBSTINACY, A HINDRANCE TO GRACE. 

neighbor may be deprived of their effective power. 
On God's side, we can be certain nothing will be 
wanting to these poor souls, for whom we interest 
ourselves, in order that they may obtain their salva- 
tion. Each prayer we offer in their behalf will gain 
them a grace, measured by the fervor, the confidence, 
and the perseverance with which we have prayed. 
From this point of view the efficiency of our prayers 
is as unfailing as when we ask of God the graces we 
need for ourselves. But over the free will of these other 
souls we have not the same power as over our own 
will, and hence we can never be certain they will not 
hinder the action of grace by some insuperable 
obstacle. We can even imagine, on the part of some 
sinners, a. degree of malice and obstinacy so great 
that their conversion is morally impossible. Beyond 
any doubt, it is of them only St. John speaks, when 
he tells ns there are sins so unto death that no prayer 
can obtain their forgiveness. 

Briefly, we can say, with St. Thomas, that when 
the prayers we offer for our neighbor's salvation fail 
of their effect, it is not because they did not unfail- 
ingly win from God the graces we asked of Him, but 
solely because the sinner stubbornly repelled the 
graces won. 

But we may add, with the same holy Doctor, that, 
since we do not know the interior disposition of souls, 
there is no sinner on earth, however obstinate, for 
whom we cannot and ought not to pray. 21 

21 2. 2., (]. 8j, a 7 ad 2, <5° j>. 



THE VICTORIES OF GRACE. 79 

True, the hardening of the will may go beyond 
all bounds. But there is no bound which the power 
of grace cannot leap over \ and this power goes on 
increasing with our prayer. Therefore, in the meas- 
ure of our prayers, it becomes more and more likely 
that the rebellious will, in the end, will give the 
consent refused till now to an impulse less strong. 
This probability may so increase that it becomes, 
equivalently, a kind of moral certainty. Indeed, the 
graces gained for a sinner go on increasing in the 
measure of the number of prayers offered for him, 
and in proportion to their fervor, to perseverance in 
them, and to the degree of holiness of the persons 
who offer them. So we can understand how 
a moment may come when the light which shines 
upon his understanding will be so bright, and the 
impulse pushing his heart toward God so vehement, 
that the consent of the will will be wrested from him, 
as it were, in spite of all resistance. This was the 
meaning of that holy bishop who assured the mother 
of Augustine, when praying and weeping over her 
wandering son, that " the child of so many tears 
could not perish. " It is true, such an assurance does 
not rest on the rules of rigid justice. It is based on 
the riches of a mercy as fruitful in its inventions as 
it is generous in its aid. What else can be needed 
to fill with courage and confidence many an incon- 
solable Monica? 

This fills us with confidence for the future. But 



80 LITTLE USE MADE OF PRAYER. 

should not this thought also cover us with confusion 
for the past? How is it possible not to regret having 
made so little use of the limitless power we have had 
in our hands ever since we reached the age of reason? 
How, without grief, shall we look upon those years, 
all too many, wherein we prayed so little for sinners ? 
It is impossible we should not feel our souls torn 
asunder by the keen conviction, from which we can- 
not shield ourselves, that there are now souls in hell 
— perhaps a great number of them — who might have 
been saved and have owed to us their eternal happi- 
ness, who would now be praying in heaven for us, 
had we but prayed and labored and suffered for them. 
This reflection ought to inflame us with a zeal and 
determination to make use of this weapon, which is 
so powerful and in our hands. It should lead us to 
repair, by our fervor, the great losses which our 
wretched carelessness has brought after it in its train. 



THE PRAYER OF THE JUST MAN. 81 



VI. 

The promises of Jesus Christ extend to prayers offered by- 
sinners. 

A new difficulty comes up at this point. Will 
our prayers for ourselves or others have any effect if 
we are so unhappy as not to be in the state of grace? 
In other words, is it only the prayer of the just man 
that without fail obtains whatsoever it asks ? Or has 
this power been likewise given to the sinner's prayer, 
when in other respects he fulfils the required con- 
ditions ? 

First of all, it is certain that merit properly 
so-called — that which gives strict right to eternal 
reward, and is called in theology " condign " merit 
(de condigno) — belongs only to the prayer of the just 
man, although that of the sinner may have a certain 
" congruous " merit (de congruo). 

Again, it is certain that, if all else be equal, the 
prayer of the just man must work the greater effect. 
The just man is God' 's friend. His prayer, issuing 
from a pure soul, is more pleasing to the Divine 
Majesty and is stronger in the merits of Jesus Christ. 
And, since the just man habitually fulfils the will of 
God, it is meet that God should also do his will, 
according to the words of the Prophet : The Lord 
will do the will of them that fear Him?' 1 

22 Psalm cxliv. 19. 



82 THE POWER OF PRAYER, FROM ACTUAL GRACE. 

But, in this place, we are considering prayer from 
the single point of view of its efficiency in regard to 
the grace we ask for. 

It will be easy to answer the difficulty, if we 
recall the teaching of St. Thomas, that prayer has its 
power of pleading {impetratiori) from faith and confi- 
dence. He says: "The merit of prayer comes to 
it from charity ; but its efficiency, from confi- 
dence." 23 

What is the reason of this difference? It is 
this : merit, which is the right to the heavenly inher- 
itance, is the proper fruit of sanctifying grace, and 
consequently of charity, which makes us the adoptive 
sons of God. The efficacy of prayer, on the other 
hand, is the fruit of actual grace ; and this grace 
God gives even to those who have lost His friend- 
ship, and indeed, as we have seen, it is 'the only 
means by which they can regain it. When the 
Prophet would raise to life the widow's son he leaned 
over him again and again, and placed his mouth 
upon the mouth of the corpse, until at last he made 
it breathe with himself. 24 So God leans over the 
sinful soul and breathes into it His grace. Let the 
soul give itself up to this quickening breath with 
entire faith ; let it breathe with God, by prayer full 
of confidence ; and the divine breathing, which no 
faltering on our part deprives of its virtue, will not 
fail to give back its life to the soul. 

23 2, 2., q. 83, a. 13. 2 * IV. Kings, iv. 34. 



TOWER OF THE SINNER'S PRAYER. 83 

Therefore the sinner, like the just man, may 
promise himself to obtain whatever he asks, provided 
that his prayer has the other conditions required. 
This is a doctrine comforting beyond measure, and 
which cannot be too often explained. For there are 
many persons who fancy that since merit, properly 
so called, cannot be expected from actions done in 
the state of mortal sin, so too it is useless to pray as 
long as they remain in that unhappy state — some- 
thing which is utterly false, as we have just remarked 
with St. Thomas. 

St. Chrysostom adds : i i Whosoever asks receives, 
says Jesus Christ, whether he be a just man or not." 
And St. Augustine : "If God did not listen to sin- 
ners, vainly w r ould the publican have prayed : Lord, 
be merciful to me a sinner"' 1 * 

But really, someone will say, how can it be that 
souls in a sate of sin, and therefore odious in the 
eyes of God, can have such power over His Heart, 
and that He should not be able to refuse to their 
prayers His priceless blessings ? We shall understand 
how this is, without any difficulty, if in these poor 
souls we distinguish, as St. Thomas does, two things 
which the Fatherly eye of God discerns with perfect 
distinctness. On one side is their sin, which He 
detests ; on the other is their nature, wmich He has 
made to His own likeness, and in which there yet 

25 S. J. Chrys., Op. imperf. in Matth., horn. 18 ; S. Aug., 
Tr. 44 in Joan. 

5 



84 the sinner's prayer, from grace. 

remain many good natural qualities, and even many 
graces that sin has been unable to drive out. And 
God loves their nature with an infinite love, with 
the same love which brought Him to give His Only 
Son for their salvation. Thus, because of His 
infinite holiness, He puts far from Him every move- 
ment of the soul that is caused by sin. But He is 
quite as ready, in His infinite mercy, to welcome and 
give His favor to the contrary movements that spring 
from the supernatural habits of faith and hope, and 
always tend to bring these souls again under the 
sway of charity. Prayer is one of these movements 
of the soul, and the most powerful of all. How then 
can it be otherwise than pleasing to God ? Of course, 
He does not recognize in the sinner's prayer that 
voice of His Son which cries out to Him in the 
person of Christ's living members, who rightfully 
pray in confidence that knows no bounds : Abba, 
Father™ But He does recognize in it the lamenta- 
tion of the prodigal entreating pity, and that heart- 
rending cry, which no father ever yet withstood. 
The Holy Ghost dwells not yet in these guilty hearts 
unpurified by penance, but He is already at their 
door, He knocks, He begs for entrance. 27 Their 
prayer is but the echo of His own divine entreaties. 
How can we wonder that God unfailingly listens to 

26 Because you are sons, God hath sent the Spirit of His Son 
into your hearts, crying : Abba, Father. Galatians, iv. 6. 

27 Cone, Trid., Sess. vi. 



PRAYER THE SEED OF LIFE. 85 

the sighs He Himself has breathed into, us — that He 
fulfils the desires of which He is the beginning, and 
which, as they pass through the sinner's soul, give 
something of their own purity and strength ? The 
sinner who can pray has already within himself the 
germ of life ; for prayer, which is the fruit of faith 
and hope, is the seed of charity. 



86 THE PRACTICE OF THE APOSTLES. 



VII. 

The power of prayer proved by the teachings of the Saints. 

We now know how far the power of prayer 
reaches. By the light of God's Word, we have 
entered into the very depths of the consoling mystery 
of grace. We have seen how souls are born to the life 
of God, and how, when they have lost this supernat- 
ural life, they can regain it. Prayer has shown itself 
to be the resistless force attracting light and heat 
from heaven. We have heard how the Incarnate 
Word of God, as He proffers us this means of obtain- 
ing all things from God His Father, surrounds its 
boundless efficacy with the strongest guarantees and 
insures to it not only the power of giving life to our- 
selves, but the power also of giving it back to all 
our brethren who are deprived of it. 

We might stop here. Yet it will not be without 
use to ask the Saints how they have understood these 
promises of God. We have considered prayer in its 
divine fountain-head. Let us follow along its fruit- 
ful course, and see how it sends forth all kinds of 
heavenly fruit. 

The Apostles were the faithful guardians and the 
infallible interpreters of our Saviour's teachings; 
and they were the first to proclaim this all-powerful 
efficacy of prayer. They made it their own chief 
duty, as we shall soon see ; but they also recom- 



ST. PAUL AND ST. PETER. 87 

mended themselves urgently to the prayers of their 
disciples, who were as yet scarcely born to the life 
of faith. 

Listen to St. Paul, 28 as he urges the Ephesians 
to cease not offering to God all kinds of prayer and 
supplication in order to keep the fervor of their spirit 
ever awakened, and to obtain from God by the most 
urgent entreaties the graces necessary to all the 
Saints, and for himself in particular the grace of 
speaking with fruit the words of salvation : By all 
prayer and supplication praying at all times in the 
spirit: and in the same watching with all instance and 
supplicatio7i for all the Saints : and for me, that speech 
may be given me, that I may open my mouth with con- 
fidence, to make known the mystery of the Gospel. 
He writes to Philemon : / hope that through your 
prayers I shall be given unto you. Again, to the 
Colossians : Pray for us also, that God may open unto 
us a door of speech, to speak the mystery of Christ. 

The first Christians had been formed in the 
school of the Apostles, and they had the same confi- 
dence in the power of prayer. A single fact will be 
more than sufficient proof for us. 

The infant Church was assailed by a storm that 
threatened to swallow it up. He whom Jesus Christ 
had placed at the helm, had been snatched away and 
loaded with chains. To what weapon of deliverance 
would the abandoned faithful have recourse? The 
whole Church set itself to pray, and prayed without 

28 Ephes., vi. 18; Philem., 22; Coloss., iv. 3. 



88 WITNESS OF ST. FRANCIS XAVIER. 

ceasing : Peter therefore was kept in prison, but 
prayer was made without ceasing by the Church unto 
God for hint.™ This seems a weak defence against 
the iron gates that closed the prison and the soldiers 
guarding it. But the faithful knew that prayer has 
in its favor God's Word, living and effectual, and 
more piercing than any two-edged sword.™ Their con- 
fidence did not deceive them. Their prayers soon 
opened the iron gates and broke the Apostle's chains, 
and gave back to their love him for whom they had 
wept. 

We might gather together many other witnesses 
in favor of the same truth, if there were need of it. 
But we will content ourselves with St. Francis 
Xavier, the Apostle of the Indies. Leaving aside a 
multitude of letters in which he demands help from 
the prayers of his brethren, let us attend to the 
following passage. He writes it from Japan to his 
brothers in Rome. " I must tell you that God, more 
than once, has given me to know, by interior light, 
that I owe my deliverance from the many perils that 
have assailed me, both in soul and body, to the 
prayers and Holy Sacrifices of our Fathers and 
Brothers — those who are still combating on earth or 
already triumphing in heaven. I say this to you 
in order to give God and you, my very dear Brothers, 
my tribute of thanks, and at the same time to beg 
you to unite your thanksgiving with mine; fori deny 
not that I am quite incapable of paying what I owe." 

29 Acts, xii. 5. 30 Hebrews, iv. 12. 



EXAMPLES MOSES, ABRAHAM. 89 



VIII. 

The practice of the Saints— the example of our Lord. 

To the authority of words, let us now add that 
of examples. 

Facts proving the power of prayer are beyond 
number. To undertake to recount them all would 
be to relate the whole history of the Church. 
Prayer is the foundation of the holy place, its rampart 
and defence, its strength and stability. The history 
of the Jewish and the Christian people alike confirms 
a truth so important, in the most striking manner. 
On the mountain top of Sinai, Moses, in the power 
of prayer, strives against the wrath of the Almighty, 
Who has resolved to exterminate His people. And 
the Creator, before His own creature, takes the part 
of one beseeching : Let Me alone, that My wrath may 
be kindled against them, and that I may destroy them? 1 
Moses refuses to give Him leave, and God is con- 
strained to yield ! What is the power thus superior 
to God's justice? What can it be but the resistless 
power with which Divine Mercy endows prayer ? 

Abraham, in his day, had availed himself of this 
power, and God in like manner suffered Himself to 
be vanquished. He accepted every condition which 
His servant imposed on Him. 32 Sodom itself — the 

31 Exodus, xxii. 10. 

32 / beseech Thee, saith he [Abraham], be not angry , Lord, 
if I speak once more . What if ten should be found there [just 



90 AARON, JOSUE, ELIAS, ELISEUS. 

Sodom of abomination — would have owed its salva- 
tion to the prayer of a single just man, could it have 
fulfilled the easy stipulation he had made in its 
name. All the crimes it had been heaping up for so 
many generations weighed not so heavily with the 
Heart of God as lowly and confiding prayer. 

Moses, again, standing on the mountain, lifts 
to heaven his trembling hands upheld by Aaron and 
Hur, and he secures by his prayer the triumph of his 
people over Amalec. 33 

When the avenging flames threaten to consume 
the rebellious multitude which has insolently risen up 
against God's servants, we see Aaron darting forward, 
with the censer in his hands, and standing between 
the dead and the living he stretches out against the 
Lord the weapons of his ministry, and stays the 
cruel scourge by the ardor of the prayer he sends up 
to heaven along with the smoke of incense. 34 

Josue desires to complete the victory he has won 
over his people's enemy. He has recourse to God, 
and God, says the Holy Scripture, obeys the voice of 
the man who prays. The sun remains motionless so 
long as prayer withstands its onward course. 

By prayer Elias brings down fire from heaven 
on those who come to seize him in the name of a 
wicked prince. By prayer, again, Eliseus restores 

persons in Sodom] ? And He said : I will not destroy itfo?' the 
sake of ten. Genesis, xviii. 33 Exodus, xvii. 

34 Numbers, xvi ; Wisdom, xviii. 21. 



ORIGIN OF THE CHURCH'S FEASTS. 91 

to the widow of Sarepta her only son, whom death 
had snatched from her affection. 35 

We must not think the wonders wrought in the 
Church are less numerous or less prodigious. Her 
annals recall to us on every page the triumph of 
prayer, which has so justly been called " suppliant 
omnipotence " (pmnipoientia supplex). And many a 
document remains as the unimpeachable witness. 

Thus, the feasts of the Exaltation of the Holy 
Cross, of the Transfiguration of our Lord, and of the 
Holy Rosary, the confraternity of Our Lady of Help 
and others besides, owe their origin to miracles 
obtained from the Most High by the invocation of 
His name. 

Without speaking of other cities, where the 
same prodigy has often been repeated, Rome, under 
the Pontiff St. Gregory the Great ; Milan, under its 
Archbishop St. Charles Borromeo; Marseilles, under 
the courageous Bishop Belzunce, saw the plague vanish 
away before prayer. At Rome the establishment 
of the Great Litanies called after St. Mark, and at 
Marseilles the consecration of the city to the Sacred 
Heart of Jesus, have perpetuated the memory of 
these signal graces. The prayers called Rogations, 
first established in Vienne by St. Mamertus and 
afterward adopted throughout the Church, have a 
somewhat similar origin. 

In the old days Bethulia owed its preservation 

35 Josue, x ; IV. Kings, i. iv. 

s* 



92 PRAYER ANSWERED IN SPIRITUAL THINGS. 

to the piety of a woman of courage. Paris too has 
had its Judith ; defended by the prayers of Gene- 
vieve as by an impregnable fortress, the city escaped 
the fury of Attila. 

But most of all in spiritual things does God 
love to show forth the power of prayer. 

Who is this proud mortal man that marches on 
surrounded by his many followers, and tasting the 
sweets of triumph? It is Arius who daringly dis- 
plays his pride through the city of Constantinople. 
Heresy claps its hands for joy, and believes that 
victory is its own. But the Bishop St. Alexander 
pours forth in the sight of God his tears and sighs ; 
when, struck down by sudden disease, the heresiarch 
expires in the most dreadful torments, leaving to his 
partisans for their sole inheritance the stigma of a 
shameful death, the worthy chastisement of his 
impiety. 

Once more, look at this entire nation embracing 
the holy religion of the crucified God. What kind 
of an apostle is it that has converted this unbelieving 
people to the faith? It is a young slave that has 
wrought this wonder : the prayers of St. Christiana 
won for the Iberians the priceless gift of grace and 
regeneration. 

How was it that the South of France escaped 
the fatal heresy of the Albigenses, and regained the 
lively faith so characteristic of it, though once it 
seemed to have lost that faith for ever? Dominic 



FRUITS OF PRAYER FOR ENGLAND. 93 

had recourse to heaven. Under the inspiration of 
Mary he established the devotion of the Holy 
Rosary, and what the combined armies of Catholic 
princes could not obtain, was the fruit of prayer. 

The words of the Holy Spirit are indeed true : 
Pray, one for another, that you may be saved : for the 
continual prayer of a just ma7i availeth much. m 

Some may find these events too far remote from 
our own day, and will desire to see them confirmed 
by more recent facts. To them we would say — Look 
at England. Only a few years have passed since 
prayers were organized to demand from heaven the 
conversion of this people, whose influence would 
make so easy the conversion of the entire world. 
And, behold ! the Catholic element has already 
developed itself with a swiftness as consoling to 
Catholics as it is frightening to the heads of the 
Anglican Church. Numerous and splendid conver- 
sions have shaken to its base the edifice raised up by 
the schismatical hand of Henry VIII. Disquieting 
doubts have been awakened in naturally upright 
hearts. Sooner or later they will give place to the 
clear light of truth, which seems to be sought after 
in good faith. Science and reflection will give back 
England to Catholicity. It is prayer which has 
made ready the way for this triumph, prayer is now 
hastening it forward by its desires, and prayer will 
some day crown it — such is our hope. 
36 St. James, v. 1 6. 



94 NOTE CONVERSION OF ENGLAND. 

[Father Ramiere's long residence in England made him 
familiar with the Catholic revival which followed on the Oxford 
Movement of 1833. The union of prayers to which he alludes 
was inaugurated throughout Europe shortly before that time by 
a convert to the faith, the Honorable and Reverend George 
Spencer, an uncle of the present Lord Spencer, and afterward 
widely known as the Passionist Father Ignatius. The foregoing 
page was written thirty years since, and the intervening time has 
materially changed — not always for the better — the religious 
life of England. Father Ramiere, until the end, kept his 
bright hopes of what he fondly called " the resurrection and 
progress of Catholicity in England." And, in spite of infi- 
delity and a very practical atheism that has come up under the 
specious title of Agnosticism, it is certain that the movement 
of return toward the Catholic Church on the part of the 
thoughtful and, as we may say, more Christian Protestants in 
England, has gone on constantly increasing. Cardinal New- 
man, who has had so large a part in this work, described it forty 
years ago as a " Second Spring." To one who compares the 
present condition of Catholics in England with their condition 
at the time when Father Spencer was organizing his union of 
prayers, the next to miraculous progress made will be appa- 
rent. At that time conversions to Catholicity were wellnigh as 
rare as to the religion of Mahomet, and were scarcely more 
respected. Catholics had little or no part in the intellectual life 
of the country, their opinions were not considered worthy of 
notice by reasonable minds, their faith was regarded as a worn- 
out superstition, and socially, with the exception of a few noble 
families that had never given up the religion of their God to 
embrace the religion of their king, they were outside the pale of 
respectable society. At present, with all drawbacks and difficul- 
ties taken into account, the change is far greater than was the 
change, in a similar period of time, during the Christianization 
of the Roman Empire. 



WORK OF OUR LADY OF VICTORIES. 95 

There is now no member of the English-reading public 
throughout the world who does not know that Catholic writers 
of eminence have appeared, having something to say in their 
own defence on reasonable grounds. What is more, there are 
few families wherein there have not been conversions to the 
Faith. No matter what may have been the defections due 
to worldliness and lack of suitable instruction among Catholics 
themselves, it is certain that faith has been made easier to mil- 
lions of souls, and • a natural groundwork laid for that super- 
natural turning of a whole people to God, which in any case 
must be the result of His own immediate action by a special 
outpouring of grace. It has been one of the chief " Inten- 
tions " of the League of the Sacred Heart, in which the Apostle- 
ship of Prayer is organized, to draw down such grace from 
heaven.] 

But there is no need of dwelling longer on this 
point at a time when the Archconfraternity of Our 
Lady of Victories daily records new wonders and, 
like a wide-spreading tree, brings forth fruits of 
salvation, not only in France where it sprang up, but 
throughout the world. What gave birth to the Arch- 
confraternity if not prayer ? It was first conceived 
at the foot of the altar by the holy priest who, in its 
establishment, was the worthy minister of the mercies 
of Mary. It was in prayer and through prayer that 
it took so rapid and so wonderful a development. 
It is through prayer that, day by day, it obtains 
results so consoling. To the pious annals of the 
Archconfraternity we refer those among our readers 
who desire to obtain an exact idea of the power of 
prayer for the salvation of souls. There they will see 



96 NOTE PRAYING FOR INTENTIONS. 

what it can do for the conversion of the most 
hardened sinners. There they may admire the 
marvels that grace has wrought in hearts. Afflictions 
the most cruel softened or dispelled, the sick cured, 
or happily prepared for a holy death, whole parishes 
changed or renewed, such are the fruits which this 
work, inspired and blessed by heaven, is constantly 
bringing forth. 

[ When this was written of the union of prayers " for 
the conversion of sinners " in the Archconfraternity of the 
Immaculate Heart of Mary, founded by the venerated Abbe 
Desgenettes in the Church of Our Lady of Victories in Paris, 
Father Ramiere could not yet foresee the wonderful continu- 
ation of this work and its spread to every corner of the globe, 
which was to be made through his own Messenger of the Sacred 
Heart. This became the periodical organ of the Apostleship of 
Prayer, when it was organized into the League of the Sacred 
Heart. All these Messengers — now numbering twenty-nine in 
fourteen different languages — furnish means to the Associates of 
the League for recommending their special needs or "Intentions " 
to prayers. Besides this, they recommend each month a " Gen- 
eral Intention " connected with some great need of the Church. 
The latter has been chosen, of late years, by the Sovereign 
Pontiff himself. It is impossible to say how far these General 
Intentions have been granted; though in some cases, notably in 
that of the Mission of Madagascar, so sorely tried some years 
since, the Director General of the League has received the 
thanks of the missionaries, who attribute the perseverance of 
their Christians under cruel difficulties to the Apostleship of 
Prayer. But the " Thanksgivings for Graces obtained," offered 
by simple Associates of the League, have been a source of con- 
stant edification to all the readers of the Messengers. 



NOTE MESSENGERS OF THE SACRED HEART. 97 

In a serious work issued by a learned religious of the 
Order to which Father Ramiere belonged, this wholesale answer 
to prayer, as it were, verified through the recommendation of 
Intentions in the various Messengers^ has been chosen as a 
shining proof that this is indeed the "Age of the Sacred Heart." 
It is one of three proofs derived from Father Ramiere' s work : 

1 . The Apostleship of Prayer united with the devotion 
of the Sacred Heart (into a League) has rendered the spread of 
this devotion easy and universal. 

2. The quite new means employed of devoting period- 
icals to the worship of the Sacred Heart and the Apostleship of 
Prayer, in various languages, has spread far and wide among all 
Christians these Messengers of the Sacred Heart, 

3. As an effect of the foregoing, the Catholic people, now 
more than ever before, in their various misfortunes and necessi- 
ties of life have recourse to the Heart of Jesus ; and a vast num- 
ber of them obtain what they ask and make it known through 
the Messengers, by " countless thanksgivings for graces obtained.'' 
— Father Costa Rossetti, De Spiritu Societatis fesu, pp. ii2-j.~\ 

Thus the present, like the past, loudly proclaims 
the boundless power of Catholic prayer. The whole 
history of the Church justifies those words of the holy 
Apostle which we have but now recalled : Pray, one 
for another, that you may be saved ; for the continual 
prayer of a just man availeth much before God. 

Thus, too, we find that the Saints, however 
numerous their occupations, always faithfully asked 
from heaven what they could not find on earth — 
light and grace for themselves and for the souls they 
were laboring to save. Sometimes their day, filled 
by the imperative demands of a ministry that 



98 PRACTICE OF APOSTOLIC SAINTS. 

absorbed all their leisure, was not enough for their 
pious and burning desire of prayer. Then night 
came to their aid ; its silence and darkness were 
favorable to their communication with God. We 
cannot understand how such men as Francis de Sales, 
Vincent de Paul, Francis Xavier, Alphonsus Liguori, 
could conceive so many and so vast undertakings for 
God's glory. And yet these apostolic men, whose 
incredible labors amaze and confound us, consecrated 
to prayer a great portion of their time. They were 
so far from finding in the manifold occupations of 
their ministry a reason for being dispensed from 
prayer, that they found therein a new motive for 
giving themselves up to this holy exercise. They 
understood that, without prayer, the apostolic man 
is a soldier without arms. They understood too that, 
since God is the Master of hearts, you will further 
the conversion of sinners more by pleading their 
cause with this Sovereign Master, than could be done 
by any other means whatsoever. 

Why should we be astonished at this behavior of 
the Saints, when we see the Apostles themselves 
giving prayer the preference over all their other 
ministries ? They were not sufficient for their varied 
occupations, and so chose seven deacons, entrusting 
to them important offices. What was it they kept 
for themselves? What was the ministry which in 
their eyes was more important than all others, by 
reason of its excellence and its results? As to our- 



THE APOSTOLIC HEART OF MARY. 99 

selves, they say, we will give ourselves continually to 
prayer and to the ministry of the word.** To speak 
to God in the name of men, to speak to men in the 
name of God ; to plead with God the cause of sin- 
ners, and to defend before sinners the interests of 
their Master and make known to them His will ; 
this is the whole duty of the Apostle. 

Soon after, we find them dividing up the world 
and going through it with giant strides, to establish 
everywhere the kingdom of Jesus Christ. The entire 
universe fell a conquest to these twelve fishermen. 
What was the victorious arm that triumphed thus 
over error and corruption, leagued together against 
the holy doctrine of the Gospel ? It was prayer and 
the word of God ; for — As to ourselves, we will give 
ourselves continually to prayer and the ministry of the 
word. 

The Apostles prayed, but they did not pray 
alone. A heart far more apostolic than their own 
sent heavenward prayers of far greater efficacy. 
While they were fighting the combats of Jesus Christ 
at every point of the globe, Mary upheld them all by 
the power of her prayers, and drew down on them 
from heaven the victory. She lifted to the throne 
of her Divine Son those hands of a Mother, bringing 
thence the floods of grace which secured so wonder- 
ful a success to the labors of the Apostles, of whom 
she is the Queen. Mary prayed, and her prayers — 

37 Acts, vi. 4. 



100 APOSTOLIC PRAYER OF OUR LORD. 

let us not hesitate to say it — co-operated more 
powerfully in the conversion of the world than the 
labors of those worthy instruments whom God's grace 
had chosen to realize this great work. This is a most 
encouraging example for a great number of religious 
souls who cannot otherwise put in practice the zeal 
which devours them. They will find in prayer, as 
did Mary, an unfailing means of bringing aid to so 
many hapless victims of ignorance and impiety. 

The example of the Apostles and of the great 
Mother of God is surely enough to impress all our 
hearts. But there is another example, greater still, 
more wonderful, and more solemn. Let us lift our 
thoughts higher, and consider the Divine Saviour of 
the world, Jesus Christ the Son of God. 

At the age of life when man is quite outside of 
all social relations, without strength and activity and 
almost without faculties, when he has as yet but a 
half-existence buried in the darkness of an obscure 
and unnoticed childhood, what was our Divine 
Saviour doing? He had freely subjected Himself to 
the humiliating law imposed on us by our physical 
weakness in the first days of our existence. He was 
mute toward men, but He spoke in our behalf to God 
His Father, and from that time was busied with our 
salvation. Even in the womb of His Mother, the 
God-Man loved us. He prayed for us, and the 
burning desires of His Heart besought our pardon. 



PRAYER AND WORK AT NAZARETH. 101 

During the long years of His hidden life in Nazareth, 
what was He doing still? His feeble arms were 
employed in painful labor that the world would 
have thought unworthy of a God, but Jesus the while 
was loving and praying. Jesus prayed — and this is 
why at Nazareth, quite as surely as on Calvary, He 
was working out the salvation of men. 

Nazareth ! The very name says more to prove 
the excellence of the Apostleship of Prayer than 
every discourse and any number of reasonings. 
These thirty years of hidden life are incompre- 
hensible, unless we look on them as the shining 
proof of the power possessed by the most menial 
toil, provided it is animated by zeal and prayer, for 
obtaining grace from heaven and for saving souls. 
In truth, the Word of God came down from heaven 
solely for this purpose — to save souls. This alone 
was unceasingly His work before Him?* At this 
He worked unceasingly, and in the way the most 
productive of effect — for in view of this had been 
planned His whole existence. Who can deny it? 
And yet, if we admit this, we must also grant that 
when our Saviour gave up thirty years to the Apos- 
tleship of Prayer and only three to the Apostleship 
of the Word, it was because He saw in the former a 
means as efficient, and even more powerful, for ful- 
filling His divine mission. 

38 Isaias, lxii. n. 



102 our lord's prayer in his public life. 

What He saw He desires we also shall see. His 
whole life is a teaching for us. We should gather up, 
with deepest attention, each one of His words and 
His least actions as so many lessons, taking them as 
the rule of our conduct. What are we to say of this 
long lesson of thirty years ? It should be enough to 
draw us from a foolish mistake, which unhappily is so 
common, that leads us to measure the efficiency and 
merit of works by the splendor of their outward 
seeming and the greatness of their visible results. 

Moreover, this Apostleship of Prayer, which was 
the sole occupation of our Saviour during the thirty 
years of His hidden life, was in no wise interrupted 
when He entered on the course of His public life. On 
the contrary, by more special prayer followed up for 
forty days and forty nights in the wilderness, He 
made His immediate preparation for the ministry of 
preaching. And in the course of this holy ministry, 
often do we see Him retiring apart, to pray more 
freely in solitude. By prayer He prepared Himself 
for choosing His Apostles. To prayer He gave 
whole nights, and in prayer He sought the rest of 
which He was in need after the weariness of the day. 
What, after all, were His journeys, His preaching, 
His labors of every kind, but an unbroken prayer ? 

Is anything else needed to convince us ? Surely, 
we can no longer doubt the merit, excelling all 
other, that belongs to the Apostleship of Prayer. 



our lord's apostleship of prayer. 103 

For we see our Divine Model, after consecrating 
exclusively to it the thirty years of His hidden life, 
still giving up to it the better part of the three years 
of His public life. Yet these already seemed scant 
enough for the Apostleship of the Word. 



104 OBJECTION FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. 



IX. 

Causes of the little result of our prayers — qualities they should 

have. 

From what we have seen, the whole life of our 
Saviour appears to be a confirmation beyond dispute 
of the privileges He has granted to prayer, of the 
praises He has bestowed upon it, of the solemn 
promises He has made in its favor. 

After this striking witness, what can still be 
wanting to win from our own spirit and heart and 
will their full assent ? Yet it must be acknowledged 
there may be wanting a testimony which, however 
inferior in its kind to that of the Word of God, 
would not be less decisive for ourselves ; I mean the 
witness borne by our own experience. 

Unhappily, this testimony seems to give the lie 
to the divine promises. We have prayed, and we 
have not been heard. We have sought, and we have 
not found. We have knocked, and the door has not 
been opened to our entreaties. This it is that dis- 
courages us ; this makes it almost impossible for us 
to have such confidence in the assurances of our 
Saviour, positive though they be, as they ought to 
inspire in us. 

How shall we offset this witness ? Is there no 
reply to be made to it ? Far from it. That which 
is clearly in opposition to the words of Supreme 



god's delay in answering prayer. 105 

Truth can be nothing else than an illusion. We need 
not go back to what has been proved already, namely, 
that prayers offered for the salvation of sinners may 
be heard in whatever relates to God or touches our- 
selves, without however obtaining their full effect, 
on account of the free resistance made by those for 
whom they were offered. As to ourselves, we have 
the merit of our prayer as largely, perhaps more so 
than if our desires had been realized. ®n His side, 
God has done everything necessary to bring light 
and life to the souls we have recommended to His 
mercy. But if these souls freely prefer darkness to 
light and death to life, what right have we to com- 
plain to heaven of their unhappy state? 

I might add that perhaps our prayers are already 
fully heard in the divine decrees, although their 
effect has not yet appeared to our eyes. We are citi- 
zens of time, and shut up in this swift-passing instant 
called the Present. We are impatient to lay hold of 
that which is promised us. That which awaits us in 
the future has scarcely any value for us. Even in 
our relations with God we should like to impose upon 
Him the laws of our own impatience. There is 
nothing more unjust than this. If we wish God to 
hear us, we must surfer Him to hear us in His own 
way — as God. This is the least that a beggar can 
do, when He Who is rich has willed to share with 
him all His treasures; he must await the moment, 
fixed by the wisdom of his generous Benefactor. 



106 CONDITIONS OF THE POWER OF PRAYER. 

Nothing is more pleasing to God than such patience ; 
and nothing is more strongly recommended in the 
Holy Scriptures. 

Let us not then be in a hurry to say that we 
have not been heard. Let us believe, on the con- 
trary, that we have been heard, or shall be, with- 
out fail. Such filial confidence will of itself be suf- 
ficient to obtain from God the grace He may have 
refused us until now. On the other hand, the dis- 
trust which should lead us to bring premature accusa- 
tions against His goodness, would be enough to 
deprive us of the gifts He might be ready to grant 
to our entreaties. 

i. — This, in reality^ is the commonest cause of 
the little power of our prayers over the Heart of 
God. They want the conditions to which their 
efficiency is attached, especially that lively faith and 
firm confidence which are the foremost of these con- 
ditions. 

Our Lord tells us in the most express terms : 
All things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believ- 
ing, you shall receive. And again : All things what- 
soever you ask when you pray, believe, . . and they shall 
come unto you. It is in this wise the Apostles under- 
stood the promises made in favor of prayer by their 
Divine Master. Thus St. James interpreted them : 
If any of you want wisdom, he says to the faithful, 
let him ask of God, Who giveth to all men abundantly 
and upbraideth not ; and it shall be given him. But 



THE NEED OF CONFIDENCE. 107 

let him ask in faith, nothing wavering : for he that 
waver eth is like a wave of the sea, which is moved a7td 
carried about by the wind ; Therefore, let not that man 
think that he shall receive anything of the Zord. 39 

Everyone can see that prayer without confidence 
is rather an insult than a homage to Divine Good- 
ness. What father would not look on it as an out- 
rage from his son, if he saw him asking distrustfully 
for the bread necessary to life, or for a remedy to 
restore his health ? To ask with distrust for the 
blessings of the supernatural order from Him Who 
has shown Himself so prodigal of air and light, of 
all necessities and superfluities even in the natural 
order, would suppose that He sets less store by the 
life and health of our souls than by the life and 
health of our bodies. It would put us in opposition 
with all created nature, and would deny to God what 
He finds in the animals and plants that accept 
food and refreshment without fear from His hands. 
To hesitate in hoping all things from God, when He 
has not hesitated to give us His only Son, yielding 
Him up for us unto death, is to call in question His 
love for the One in Whom He is well pleased. 
It taxes Him with an inconsistency of which the low- 
est of men would be incapable. It supposes Him 
indifferent to the only interest He can have at heart 
in governing His creatures — the interest of His glory 
and of the glory of the Incarnate Word — since this 

39 St. Matthew, xxi. 22; St. Mark, xi. 24; St. James, i. 

6 



108 MUTUAL DEPENDENCE OF PRAYER AND FAITH. 

interest is bound up, beyond possibility of separation, 
with our own salvation. 

But let us well understand it — faith, which is the 
condition of the efficiency of our prayers and the 
great means of obtaining the blessings of the super- 
natural order, is itself a supernatural gift, and must 
consequently itself be the fruit of prayer. 

We must also beware of seeing in this mutual 
dependence of prayer and faith a kind of vicious 
circle that we can never break through. We should 
see in it, on the contrary, the most comforting of 
all the aids given to us who find not yet in our 
hearts that confidence without limits, not to be 
shaken, all-powerful, which animated the Saints and 
made them able to move mountains, to command 
nature and obtain all things from God. 

Let us not be surprised that our heart, of itself, 
does not bring forth so divine a fruit. It is from 
heaven it must come to us. It is in the bosom of 
God we must seek it, or rather, we must receive it 
from God's hand. For God unceasingly offers us 
this light of faith and this quickening air of hope, 
with the same liberality with which He surrounds us 
with the air of our atmosphere and the light of the 
sun. We are to gather up what he gives us at the pres- 
ent moment, and make use of it for obtaining more. 
We are to say with the blind man : Lord, I believe, 
help Thou mine unbelief. Or, with the Apostles : 
Inerease my faith. Such prayer will be heard with- 



PRAYER AND HUMILITY. 109 

out fail, for in this case it is indeed the true wisdom 
which God gives to all with a bounty that does not 
count its gifts. 

2. — God will listen to us so much the more will- 
ingly as our prayer possesses in higher degree another 
quality not less pleasing to our Lord than confidence 
itself. This should be much easier to our weakness, 
since it is its natural fruit — I mean humility. 

This is the second source of the power of our 
prayers. We have already said that prayer in a way 
obliges God to show forth all His liberality and mag- 
nificence of design toward us. This is because 
prayer allows us to make use of all the energy of our 
will, and yet keeps us in that utter dependence on 
God which is the true relation of the creature to its 
Creator. Magnificence is God's nature, and liber- 
ality His essential tendency. It costs Him therefore 
much less to give than to refuse. But He cannot 
put Himself in opposition with Himself, and consent 
to His gifts becoming helps to falsehood. God is 
truth, and He cannot turn a favorable ear to His 
creatures unless they abide in the truth. Now the 
truth is that the creature is nothing, and that God 
alone is. If we keep ourselves in our own no- 
thingness, Divine Goodness will look on us with 
pleasure. Truth is sprung out of the earth, and 
justice hath looked down from heaven. — The prayer of 
him that humbleth himself, shall pierce the clouds, 
says the Wise Man. Just so far as the Most High 



110 PHARISEE AND PUBLICAN. 

shows Himself removed from the proud, so far He is 
disposed to give His grace to the humble. God 
resisteth the proud, but to the humble He giveth 
grace. Their prayers never fail to draw down His 
favor, and their entreaties are never repelled. He hath 
regard to the prayer of the humble ; and He hath 
not despised their petition.^ 

Look at the two men who pray together in the 
temple. One is famous by his learning and illustrious 
by his good works. With incorruptible zeal he 
defends the teachings of the Law and the least tra- 
dition he has received from his fathers. He burdens 
himself with many sacrifices ; he makes long prayers 
in the temple and in the public places, and he givej 
to the poor a great portion of his goods. The other, 
on the contrary, belongs to an ill- famed class, and 
he has shared in all the guilty practices w T hich have 
brought down on the members of his profession a 
just and universal contempt. In place of good 
works, he has hardly anything to show to God besides 
his extortions. Instead of sacrifices, he has only his 
faults. But this man so despised and so contempti- 
ble is humble. He acknowledges his unworthiness 
before God, while the former, so enlightened and so 
esteemed, is proud and attributes his virtues to him- 
self. What happens? What is the fruit of prayer 
in either case? Our Saviour tells us. It is the 

40 Psalm lxxxiv. 12; Ecclesiasticus, xxxv. 21; Proverbs, 
iii. 34, St. James, iv. 6, I. St. Peter, v. 5 ; Psalm ci. 18. 



* THE ANGEL AND THE PROPHET. Ill 

second who comes forth from the temple justified, 
and the first leaves it condemned : Because, adds our 
Divine Master, everyone that exalteth himself shall 
be humbled, and he that humbleth himself shall be 
exalted. 4l 

God as our Teacher could scarcely make us 
understand better how far the humility of our prayers 
can go toward supplying the defect of every other 
claim that might render them worthy of being heard. 
But He had already taught us this truth, and in a 
manner far more touching, by His Incarnation itself. 

Who can doubt the resistless attraction which 
the humility of prayer exercises over God's Heart, 
when we see Himself drawn by its charm and 
coming down from heaven .upon the earth ? It is the 
humility of Mary which gave to Divine Goodness the 
most powerful co-operation in realizing this work, 
precious beyond all others. 

Gabriel, the Angel of the Incarnation, had 
already been sent to the prophet Daniel. It was 
a time when the holy man, humbling himself in sack- 
cloth and ashes, was doing tearful penance for the 
sins of his people, which he took upon himself as if 
he had committed them/ 2 Prayer like this won the 

41 St. Luke, xviii. 14. 

42 / set my face to the Lord my God, to pray and make 
supplication, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. Now while 
I was yet speaking and praying and confessing my sins and the 
sins of my people Israel, and presenting my supplications in the 
sight of my God, . . . behold the man Gabriel Daniel, ix. 



112 THE ANGEL OF THE INCARNATION. 

Heart of God. The Archangel came to announce to 
the Prophet that, in view of the desires, so ardent 
and so humble, which he had sent up to heaven, the 
time marked in the divine decrees should be short- 
ened and the coming of the Redeemer hastened. 

After sixty-four weeks of years, again Gabriel is 
sent by Divine Mercy. But it is no longer to a 
prophet that he is to show himself; it is to the 
creature predestined to become the Mother of her 
Creator. He comes to place her in possession of a 
dignity that shall lift her infinitely above all created 
greatness. He comes to announce the fulfilment of 
the great mystery prepared from the beginning of 
time. But this mystery of love cannot be realized 
unless Mary co-operates in it ; and her humility is to 
pronounce the deciding Avord. When the Queen of 
heaven and earth shall declare herself the handmaid 
of the Lord, and in humility without compare 
shall pronounce the fiat for which God waits, then 
the new world shall be created. The fiat of Divine 
Omnipotence made this light which we see, and 
brought the universe forth from chaos. The fiat of 
the humility of Mary made to shine upon the earth 
the Uncreated Light of the Word, and brought forth 
marvels of grace from the chaos of sin. Thus to her 
humility alone, unde* God, does Mary assign this 
great work. He hath regarded, she says, the humility 
of His handmaid.^ 

« St. Luke, i. 48. 



MARY, THE MODEL OF THE APOSTLESHIP. 113 

All the privileges of Mary doubtless helped to 
make her the worthy spouse of the Heavenly Father 
and the temple of the Holy Ghost. All her virtues 
counted for something in the sweet fragrance of her 
prayers, and in the strength they had to bring down 
the Word of God. But her humility has had the chief 
share in this great work ; and it could not be other- 
wise. For was it not meet that the humility of the 
new Eve should repair the ruin wrought by the pride 
of the first virgin and the first mother ? 

This is the perfect model of the Apostleship of 
Prayer which is now set before us. For us there is 
question of completing the work which the humility 
of the prayers of Daniel had prepared, and the 
humility of the prayers of Mary has fulfilled. There 
is question of obtaining the perfect outpouring of 
those graces which have been placed in all their 
fulness in the bosom of Mary, and which only wait 
to be poured forth. Their channel must be the 
humility of our own prayers. We too must weep for 
our sins and those of our people. We must confess 
ourselves unworthy of God's mercy, even while we 
entreat it with the greatest earnestness. Let us not 
doubt that thereby we shall be able to shorten the 
time and hasten the world's salvation. 

3. — A third quality which will secure the success 
of our prayers, and the absence of which would 
easily explain their inefficiency, is perseverance. 

Perseverance in prayer is necessary for the exer- 



114 THE NEED OF PERSEVERANCE. 

cise of faith. For what merit could our faith have, 
if grace were granted to the very first desires of the 
soul? Often perseverance is needful for training up 
the disposition of him who prays to that degree of 
mature perfection which is characteristic of good 
will. St. Augustine says: "When God delays the 
granting of what you ask, He stretches out your 
desires ; and the soul thus reaching forward becomes 
capable of greater graces.' ' 

And again : "Seek, ask, urge; by seeking and 
asking you will grow more capacious for receiving. 
God withholds what He does not wish to give 
speedily, that you may learn to d s : re great things 
after a great manner. ' ' 

What hunger and thirst are to the body, desire 
is to the soul. The measure of satiety is that of 
hunger ; and this is why our Lord has said : Blessed 
are they that hunger and thirst after justice ; for they 
shall have their fill. It is the goodness of God that 
so often delays hearing our prayers. This is a way 
to make us esteem His grace the more, and to make 
us desire it more sincerely and merit to receive it 
more plentifully* Let us also add with St. Augustine, 
that God sometimes delays granting the favor we ask 
of Him, only to give it at the proper time when it 
shall be of real advantage to the soul. 

Persevere, therefore, in prayer, for our Divine 
Teacher instructs us always to pray, and not tofaint. u 

44 Tract. 4 in Psalm; Serm. J de Verb. Do;//.; 102 in 
Joan. ; St. Matthew, v. 6 ; St. Luke, xviii. I. 



ST. AUGUSTINE AND ST. THOMAS. 115 

We are to persevere in prayer, for it is impossible 
to keep asking God for help and not receive it ; to 
reach out to Him and never to obtain. Persever- 
ance, therefore, in prayer makes sure, in a way, of 
perseverance in grace and, consequently, of a good 
death. 

Moreover, it is not so difficult as we might 
imagine to practise the bidding given us : We ought 
always to pray. St. Thomas says : " The beginning 
of prayer is the desire for charity, whence prayer 
should proceed. And this ought to be continually 
within us, either in act or in the heart's disposition. 
Such a disposition is found in all our actions that 
are done out of charity. ' ' 

St. Augustine likewise teaches us how, by faith 
and hope and charity as by a continual desire, we 
cease not to pray. 

The holy Doctor then explains our Lord's 
recommendation in the Gospel — not to multiply 
words in our prayer. " To pray long," he says, " is 
not to pray with many words. It is one thing to 
have plenty of words, and quite another to have last- 
ing affection in the heart. It is written of our Lord 
that He was persevering in prayer, and that, being in 
an agony, He prayed the longer, that He might give 
us an example. Let much speech be absent from 
prayer, but let there not be wanting much praying, 
so long as earnest fervor remains. For to speak 
much while praying is to treat of necessary things 

6* 



116 CONDITIONS AND CERTAIN EFFECT OF PRAYEkv 

with unnecessary words. For the most part, an 
affair of this kind is done by the sighing of the heart 
rather than by the speech of the mouth." 45 

The conditions we have thus explained are 
required in order that we may reckon on prayer 
having its effect. We are not to forget that, once 
these conditions are fulfilled, it is impossible — this is 
the expression of St. Thomas — that we should not 
obtain what we ask. Therefore, if we would not 
give the lie to the words of Eternal Truth— a thing 
which cannot even enter into our mind — we must 
hold for certain that, as often as we pray with these 
conditions, our prayers are heard, though perhaps 
they seem to be without effect. We must believe 
this just as we believe all the mysteries of our holy 
religion. The more unapproachable the mystery is 
to our senses, the more consoling it is to our faith. 

45 St. Luke, xviii. I ; S. Th., 2, 2.> q. 33, a. 14 ; S. Aug., 
Epistola 121. 



PRAYER AS A MEANS. 117 



X. 

Summary of all that has been said on prayer. 

Prayer is the efficacious means given to man by 
which he is to bring down into his weak heart the 
all-powerful grace of God. It is the essential con- 
dition of supernatural life ; it is that means of our 
salvation which is easiest, yet most indispensable, the 
most universal as well as the most powerful. By 
prayer man draws near to God, and exercises in 
behalf of his brethren an apostleship that is useful 
and excellently fruitful. By virtue of the promises 
made in its favor, prayer when endowed with the 
necessary qualities has a boundless efficacy. Its 
results are without fail, and its action knows scarcely 
any other limitation than the infinite goodness and 
power of God. The malice of a will, become obsti- 
nate in evil, may, it is true, under certain circum- 
stances make barren the most precious graces. But 
it is not less certain that the heavenly treasures were 
laid open to this criminal will by the key of prayer. 
If the faithful and suppliant soul which interests 
itself in a sinner's salvation, does not weary of pray- 
ing and hoping, if by generous sacrifices it knows how 
to buy and to give payment for a victory which, in 
God's designs, must sometimes be the price of heroic 
confidence, of suffering and blood, it is difficult and 
wellnigh impossible that, sooner or later, this soul 



118 THE POWER OF PRAYER. 

shall not receive the reward of its persevering efforts. 
The exceptions to this rule will never be aught else 
than exceptions. For the power of prayer is that of 
charity and of love, and love is strong as death. 

Moreover, the great day that shall unveil the 
mysteries of God's justice, shall also unveil the secrets 
of His mercy and the miracles of grace won by those 
prayers to which God seemed deaf. Then, most of 
all, God shall justify the truth of His promises, and 
He shall triumph over the unjust accusations of dis- 
trust. That Thou mayest be justified in Thy words, 
and mayest overcome when Thou art judged. 

Let us wait for this day with patience, and wait- 
ing let us pray and hope. From the morning watch 
even until night: let Israel hope in the Lord. 
Because with the Lord there is mercy : and with 
Him plentiful redemption.^ 

It is told of a famous mathematician of antiquity 
that, struck with the results obtained by the action 
of the lever, he said : ' ' Give me a support and a 
lever, and I will lift the world for you." He asked 
for what was impossible, that he might realize what 
was useless. No, it is not the physical world we must 
try to lift, but the moral world. It is the souls fallen 
from their first greatness and wallowing in the mire, 
that must be regenerated and placed like stars in 
heaven. It is fallen man, the vile slave of the low- 
est passions, who has become, as it were, material, 

46 Canticles, viii. 6; Psalm 1. 5, cxxix. 9. 



PRAYER THE LEVER, GOD THE SUPPORT. 119 

that must be raised up, spiritualized, made divine. 
This is the grand work undertaken by God made 
Man — to save men ; and it is the work which His 
ministers are to carry on, and in the success of which 
every Christian should take his part. 

We are happier than Archimedes, inasmuch as 
we have found a support that was wanting to him ; 
and the powerful lever, which he uselessly demanded, 
has been placed in our hands. 

The point of support is God Himself, that is, His 
infallible Word, His promises which shall remain 
unshaken even though the heavens and the earth pass 
away. 

The lever is prayer — prayer to which God has 
given the right of commanding His infinite goodness 
and wisdom and power. 

What we have said is enough to make us under- 
stand both how solid is our support and how strong 
our lever. 

But this strength, immense as it is of itself, can 
yet be increased. The lever gains power by so much 
the more as the arm is longer and a greater number 
of hands join together to put it in motion. In the 
same way, prayer has a power so much the more 
resistless over the Heart of God as it is set to work 
by a greater number of souls. It is this means of 
increasing beyond all limit the power of prayer which 
we are to explain in the next chapter. 



CHAPTER II. 

SECOND SOURCE OF POWER: ASSOCIATION. 

" Analysis. I. Our Lord 's promises to prayer in common. 
Example in the Lord's Prayer. 

II. Motives of the promises. Nature of the most Holy 
Trinity — Its manifestation in men — need of our own nature. 

III. Association, a source of strength. Examples in the 
physical and moral order. 

IV. Power of association in the supernatural order. The 
Church, a supernatural society — examples from her history, 
association of minds, hearts, wills, persons — fulfilment of our 
Lord's last prayer. 

V. Fearful pozver of association of the wicked. Army of 
Satan — activity and unity against the Church — secret societies. 
VI. Conclusion. Need of new association of Christians 
by union of souls — example of Propagation of the Faith — its 
success, from association — nature of help it finds in Apostleship 
of Prayer. Double support, material and spiritual, of the 
Apostleship of the Word. 



1 20 



OUR LORD AND UNITED PRAYER. 121 



I. 

Promises of our Lord to prayer made in common. 

We assign power to association, and we must 
search out the reason for this. But first let us make 
sure of the reality of this power. 

Our Divine Teacher shall Himself give us this 
assurance. In collectedness of mind we should give 
ear to His words : Again I say to you, that if two of 
you shall consent upon earth concerning anything what- 
soever they shall ask, it shall be done to them by My 
Father Who is in heaven. 

Thereupon He explains to us that particular 
efficiency which is added to prayer by association. 
It is because where two hearts are united together to 
pray, there also is a third Heart that prays with 
them, and Its prayer cannot fail of being heard by 
God the Father. This Heart is His own. He is 
always present to each one of His members, but 
present most of all with those who form among them- 
selves a closer union. For zu here there are two or 
three gathered together in My name, there am I in the 
midst of them. So too, when He teaches us how to 
pray, He does not suffer us ever to separate ourselves 
from the society of our brethren. He wishes that 
our prayer should always be a common prayer. 
Thus therefore, He says, shall you pray : Our Father 
Who art in heaven, give us this day our daily bread. 



122 THE TEACHING OF THE LORD'S PRAYER. 

Forgive us our sins. . . . Lead us not into 
temptation, but deliver us from evil. 

This is the divine form of prayer, first pro- 
nounced by the Saviour of the world, and thence 
finding a place on the lips of everyone of the faithful. 
This is the Catholic prayer, excellent above all 
others. 

St. Cyprian notes : "We do not say when we 
pray, My Father, but Our Father. We do not say 
give me, but give us. For the Teacher of unity was 
not willing that each one should pray for himself 
alone. He desired that each should pray for all, 
because in Himself alone He bore all men," — and in 
Him, consequently, all men are but one. 1 

But it is not enough to believe this truth ; we 
must also strive to understand it. So far from there 
being any presumption on our part in searching into 
the deep counsels of Divine Goodness, gratitude 
makes it our duty to fill ourselves with the knowledge 
of them, that we may thus be in a state to co-operate 
with them according to the measure of our strength. 

*St. Matthew, xviii. 19, 20; id., vi, St. Luke,xi; St. 
Cypr., de or at, Dom. 



THE MYSTERIES OF GOD'S LOVE. 12.3 



II. 

Motives of the promises made in favor of association, drawn 
from God's nature. • 

We must acknowledge that, in the kingdom of 
God's mercy through which we now take our way, 
we go on from mystery to mystery. But they are 
the mysteries of love, giving answer to those inner- 
most instincts of our heart which are likewise the 
most irresistible. These mysteries reconcile all the 
contradictions of our nature. Man is infinitely weak, 
and yet he has within himself the instinct of power. 
He lives only in the present, and yet he feels the 
need of being made sure of the future. He is poor 
beyond measure, and it is necessary for him that he 
should be made rich. Here then are so many depths 
of misery and nothingness that call on the deeps 
of perfection and of greatness. 2 Prayer satisfies this 
call. It sets up a communication between the depth 
of littleness and human weakness and the great deep 
of the perfection and riches and power of God. By 
this channel, as it were, the Infinite pours Itself forth 
into nothingness and fills it with Itself. 

God now reveals to us yet another secret that 
may lift us up to His own level. To be like unto 
God it is not enough that we should be immortal 
like Him, and like Him sovereignly rich and power- 
ful. We must also be able to share these good things 

2 Psalm xli. 8, 



124 NATURE OF THE HOLY TRINITY. 

with others like ourselves, who in their turn shall give 
them back to us. From this exchange made by the 
many hearts that are one in the bond of charity, 
there arises a blessedness greater beyond compare 
than that which springs from the selfish contempla- 
tion and enjoyment of one's own riches. Thus 
is it in the ineffable society of the Three Divine 
Persons — in that communication, eternal, continual, 
complete, made to each other of all their good things 
— wherein is found the perfection and bliss of God. 
Power, wisdom, goodness, all divine attributes are in 
God the Father in an infinite degree. Yet these 
attributes have their activity only inasmuch as they 
are communicated to the Word and to the Holy 
Ghost ; and this communication is as necessary to 
God as His infinity itself. God would not be God, 
were He solitary ; and although each of the Divine 
Persons is infinite, yet for each there would be an 
infinite want if, by an impossible supposition, It 
existed alone — for that supreme perfection and 
sovereign bliss which consists in sharing happiness, 
would be wanting to It. 

With this mystery of the society of the Three 
Divine Persons — the most sublime mystery of our 
faith — is related the highest mystery of our own 
nature. 

Everything in us seems to condemn us to selfish- 
ness, yet a resistless want impels us to society. If we 
were to trust our senses, and to a certain degree our 



THE HOLY TRINITY AND MAN. 125 

reason, it would seem that strength and life and 
happiness are to be found in shutting ourselves up in 
ourselves, and in bringing to ourselves everything 
else. Yet our best instincts lead us, in spite of self, 
to go forth out of ourselves and to live in others, and 
to seek in our union with them a strength and 
fulness and contentment which we cannot find in 
ourselves alone. 

To him who knows not the Divine Trinity, this 
is a mystery beyond conception, a contradiction 
without explanation. For the perfection of man 
consists in bringing himself the nearest possible to 
God. If God, then, should find His blessedness in 
shutting Himself up in self and enjoying self, it is 
clear that in this also — in supreme selfishness- — the 
sovereign happiness of man should be found. But all 
Christians know by faith that, even in God, life, and 
consequently happiness which is the fulness of life, 
exist only on condition of communicating them- 
selves ; and so we cannot wonder that He has made 
it impossible for us to enjoy alone our own perfection 
and happiness, and that He has given to associa- 
tion the power of multiplying an hundredfold our 
strength and our riches. 

Thus the mystery of the Divine Trinity — which 
is itself beyond all explaining — explains to us, 
along with many other mysteries of nature and of 
grace, that which occupies us at this moment, the 
mystery of association and its immeasurable power. 



126 THE I,AW OF ALMIGHTINESS. 

By prayer every Christian is put in possession of 
the almightiness of God. But just as God the Father 
cannot exercise alone the infinite power which is His 
by the necessity of His nature, so the Christian 
cannot exercise alone that limitless power which 
belongs to him through prayer. If he desires that 
it should act without fail, he must unite in his prayer 
other hearts enkindled like his own with the spirit of 
charity. In accordance with faith, our reason itself 
tells us that, once we admit the doctrine of the 
Trinity, things cannot be otherwise. For that 
almighty power of pleading, which is given us by 
prayer, can work only by those laws which are 
obeyed by the almightiness that belongs to the 
nature of God. 



ASSOCIATION IN THE PHYSICAL ORDER. 127 

III. 

Association, a source of strength in every order of things. 

From that uncreated world which is in God, let 
us lower our gaze to the created world that surrounds 
us. There we shall find at every step traces of that 
law which rules the Divine Nature Itself. Every- 
where we shall see the most striking proofs of the 
resistless force given by association to the weakest 
creatures. 

What is weaker than a fibre of hemp or flax ? 
A breath is enough to break it in twain. But twist 
together a sufficient number, and you have cables 
strong enough to drag along ships. What has less 
resistance than a drop of water? Under the least 
pressure it falls back and flows away. Yet when a 
sufficient number of drops of water unite together, 
you see the most solidly constructed dykes yield 
before their impetuous onrush, and buildings which 
cannon would scarcely demolish fall as if they were 
but straw ; while giant trees and rocks of enormous 
size are whirled along like grains of sand, and whole 
valleys are devastated, and even mountains upturned 
from their foundations. Entire armies have been put 
to flight by swarms of the least and feeblest of insects. 
And to what must we assign the frightful power of 
wind, and the yet more wonderful power of steam, if 
not to union — to the association of elements without 
power of themselves and the least within our grasp? 



128 IN THE MORAL ORDER. 

If this is the case, how can we be astonished that 
what is the most powerful thing in the world — the will 
of man — should gain by association so great a power ? 

In fact, it is especially in the moral order that 
association unfolds all its energy and works veritable 
miracles. It is to association that we look for the 
satisfaction of our physical needs and the develop- 
ment of our intellectual faculties. How many hands 
had to associate together to make the simplest 
garment we wear, from the hand of the shepherd 
feeding the sheep, whose fleece furnished its material, 
to the hand of the workman that cut its different 
pieces and sewed them together ! How many arms 
were wearied in making the morsel of bread that is 
the prime element of our food ! The greatest genius 
would be but an idiot, did not the genius of all 
society brood over him, and by a motherly process of 
incubation develop in him the faculties he holds 
from God and the seeds of knowledge which nature 
has put in his way. All progress in the arts, all 
marvels of industry, all great deeds recorded in 
history, every monument of architecture, and the 
structure of the sciences, of a harmony so different 
from the building of stone or marble — what are they 
all but so many shining proofs of the power beyond 
compare of association, and of the sublime applica- 
tion of that law which the Creator proclaimed on the 
world's first day : It is not good for man to be alone : 
Let Us make him a help like unto himself J 3 

3 Genesis, ii. 1 8. 



THE CHURCH A SUPERNATURAL SOCIETY. 129 



IV. 

The power of association in the supernatural order. 

We ought by this time to understand one thing. 
God has wished to do a work diviner than all His 
other works : it has pleased Him to call men to 
become infinitely more like to Him than they could 
expect to be from their own nature. Doing this, He 
has been obliged to call on them to form among 
themselves a society which, infinitely more than is 
the case in all natural associations, is like to that 
society of light and love which He comprises in Him- 
self and which makes His own perfection and bless- 
edness. We ought no longer to wonder that He has 
granted to the supernatural associating together of 
souls privileges that are really divine, and that He 
has clothed it with the power of working by prayer 
all that He has wrought Himself in virtue of His 
Divinity. 

This society of souls, this perfect image of the 
Divine Trinity on earth, this work divine among all 
others, in which the energy of association has been 
intensified to its highest degree, is the One Holy 
Catholic and Apostolic Church. 

Consider the growth of this little mustard seed, 
whence there has sprung forth the giant tree which 
now covers the earth with its branches. See how weak 
were its beginnings, how few its first elements, how 



130 the church's strength from association. 

powerful its enemies, how fearful the difficulties it had 
to conquer. Think of the attacks the Church has 
endured, the persecutions she has undergone, the 
victories she has won. Consider the strength of her 
constitution, the persevering energy of her acticn, 
the miracles she has wrought. Whence comes this 
superhuman power of hers? From association, but 
from an association the most perfect we can imagine. 
For it is the association of minds in the same faith, 
of hearts in the same desire and the same love, of 
wills in thesame obedience to, and fulfilment of, the 
same law, of persons, last of all, in the unity of the 
same interests, of the same hopes, and of the same 
manner of life. 

Yes, it is this that has made the Catholic Church 
strong within and without, invincible before her 
enemies, all-powerful in behalf of her children, vic- 
torious over the attacks of hell, never to be shaken 
in the midst of the assaults directed against her by 
the powers of earth. And while through the world 
all fails and vanishes away, the Church, hovering 
over the ruins which death heaps up around her, 
with majesty passes through the centuries, ever living 
and ever vigorous. 

To this Catholic association the world owes the 
light which shines upon it, the grace which gives it 
life, the virtues which honor it, the multiple works 
with which charity gives solace to its miseries. 
Through association every heavenly treasure, holiness 



our lord's last prayer. 131 

and peace and happiness, are poured out on all the 
faithful children of the Church. From this fruitful 
root spring forth, like so many branches, all the 
holy institutions which, from the time of Jesus 
Christ, have covered the earth with their sheltering 
shade. Through the Church individuals and peo- 
ples are great and ju t and blessed. She cures all 
evils, she effectually secures every true good. 

When our Saviour mounted up to heaven, He 
asked but a single thing for His disciples : That 
they all may be one, as Thou, .Father, in Me, and I in 
Thee : that they also may be one in Us. 4 " This is His 
last desire, His last word for us. He came upon 
earth only to create among men an image of the 
Divine Society. All the reward He asks for the 
works and sufferings He has endured for His Father's 
glory, is that this likeness shall be perfect and that it 
shall remain ; that the association of souls, by its 
closeness, shall become like to that perfect unity 
which reigns among the Divine Persons. He asks 
not for His work any other warrant of strength or 
prosperity or duration. He asks no other glory for 
it ; for of all miracles the divinest, of all power the 
most victorious, of all principles of life the most 
fruitful, is beyond all doubt the union of souls joined 
and, as it were, molten together in the fire of divine 
charity. 

* St. John, xvii. 21. 



132 THE ARMY OF SATAN. 



V. 

The fearful power of the association of wicked men. 

Satan understands the resistless power of associ- 
ation. He has brought to bear all the resources of 
his intelligence and all the energy of his will, in 
order to set up against the society of those souls 
who sacrifice their selfish interests to the triumph of 
God's cause, an equally compact society of souls work- 
ing, at the expense of their own eternal interests, for 
the triumph of the cause of evil. The Church of the 
Saints is the masterpiece wrought by the Incarnate 
Word j but this infernal church of the wicked is the 
masterpiece of the fallen Archangel. Here, as every- 
where else, he shows himself the imitator, or rather, 
as one of the Holy Fathers has expressed it, " the ape 
of God." 

He too has given to his church an organization 
and a hierarchy in which all the degrees are perfectly 
bound together. In default of that charity which 
destroys all mean selfishness and blends interests in 
one, he unites hearts by a fire of hatred that suspends 
all rivalry until the day of victory. It is a pride that 
submits to the pride of others, a selfishness which, 
divided in everything else, here unites to make war 
on charity. There is no positive doctrine in it. 
The members of Satan agree only in denying. There 
is no agreement for building up, but the agreement 



UNITY AGAINST THE CHURCH. 133 

is perfect whenever there is question of pulling down. 
From the heretic who denies the power of the 
Church, to the pantheist and the atheist who deny 
God, and the sceptic who denies everything, there 
are numberless gradations. They form the different 
bodies of the great army of denial, that is to say, of 
the hosts of Satan, the adversary and the enemy of 
truth. Each of these denials is useful to him, and 
he makes use of them cleverly, in his own time and 
place. Even he turns to wonderful account, for 
drawing souls after him, the partial truths so many 
of his followers still hold. For nothing would be 
more harmful to him, even were it not impossible, 
than to have at his command nothing but absolute 
error. It is far also from being true that all his tools 
are perfectly initiated in the knowledge of the aim he 
has in view. On the contrary, he has but a small 
number of apostles to whom he has revealed his full 
secret. To others this secret is communicated only 
by degrees, according to the growing measure of 
their malice. Meanwhile the multitude suffers itself 
to be led on blindly, by the bonds of its own 
passions and prejudices. 

The sacrilegious schemes of Satan's favorites, 
conceived as they are in the depths of hell and 
covered with an impenetrable veil of mystery, have 
for their aim naught but disorder and disorganization. 
How often have their machinations shaken to the 
base states the most solidly constituted, and over- 



134 ASSOCIATION, THE STRENGTH OF EVIL INFLUENCE. 

thrown kingdoms and kings, and buried in a common 
ruin empires, dynasties, institutions, and men. But 
it is the Church which, most of all, is aimed at, and 
against which the gates of hell seek to prevail. The 
attempts of wickedness we know shall be powerless ; 
but they drag down to the abyss a great number of 
victims, and at this time we might almost say that 
Lucifer, so often cast down, was making his last 
effort to gain the victory over Christ. 

But whence does this assembly of the wicked 
have its strength? Whence does it draw the evil 
influence which renders it, now more than ever 
before, the greatest danger of the entire world ? Oh ! 
let us not hide it from ourselves — its strength comes 
from association. Secret ties unite its members with 
each other. Every means of communication which 
human industry can invent, the press, commerce, 
industrial societies, beneficence itself, steam, elec- 
tricity : all is a means to bring its members closer 
together, to make their league more compact and 
their understanding with each other more perfect and 
their action better concerted, and to render their 
influence more irresistible still. 

Would to God that all Christians would give to 
the service of their holy cause the same activity, and, 
we must say it, the same abnegation which the 
ministers of Satan use in the performance of their 
work of destruction ! We see them hasten unceas- 
ingly from one end of Europe to the other, confront- 



THE UNION OF SECRET SOCIETIES. 135 

ing every danger and crossing every barrier which is 
put in their path. How many boards of inspection 
are found, which the doctrines of the Church of 
Christ cannot pass, yet which idly try to stay the 
course of the most odious productions of the church 
of Satan ? Who furnishes the means of printing so 
many evil books, and sells them at so cheap a price ? 
Who pays the hire of so many agents? Who pro- 
vides for the expenses of the socialistic unions of 
workingmen ? Who counts out the money to their 
emissaries sent far and wide ? What activity there is 
in all this, what zeal, what fearful abnegation of self ! 

This church has its sacraments also, and perhaps 
abominable sacrifices that it seeks to wrap round with 
impenetrable mystery, but over which from time to 
time Providence causes a ray of light to shine that 
discloses all its horror. 

Who, in our day, has not heard of the secret 
societies, of their meetings and their "lodges"? 
No one can be ignorant that, under the veil of some 
philanthropic aim, among the really initiated the 
most frightful conspiracies have been organized 
against the Lord and His Anointed, against the 
Church and its Head, against the temporal power 
and the most sacred interests of society ; and that 
the Satanic schemes of the chiefs of this sect are 
placed under the inviolable law of a sacrilegious oath. 

Thus evil struggles against good, darkness 
against light, vice against virtue, death against life, 



136 THE CHURCH OF SATAN. 

hell against heaven, Satan against God. It is a 
terrific struggle that began with the fall of the rebel 
Angel, and has never ceased to spring up anew, 
though with changing mien and varying fortune, 
through the whole course of the ages. The very 
nature of this sinister and darksome war, which the 
spirit of falsehood wages against the God of truth, 
hides the greater part of its manoeuvring from our 
knowledge. But, could we write the history of the 
church of Satan as the history of the Church of 
Jesus Christ is written, we should see with what one- 
ness of plan and unity of effort, with what flexible 
yet persistent tactics, this war has been carried on. 
We should have no trouble in recognizing the lineage 
of the sons of Cain and of Canaan, from the begin- 
ning of the ages to our own day. Such a history, by 
itself alone, would form a convincing proof of the 
fearful power which is in the possession of souls, the 
moment they unite together. For association must 
be indeed powerful, when it disputes the victory with 
God Himself, and for centuries delays the success of 
the efforts of the Incarnate Word and His Angels 
and His Saints 1 Thus association is still an element 
of strength, even when it can no longer be a source 
of perfection and happiness. Just as in heaven the 
association of all the Saints, in one and the same love, 
is the fountain-head of their divine bliss, so in hell 
the association of the evil Angels, in one and the 
same hatred, is the source of their deadly power. 



COMPARISON OF THE TWO SOCIETIES. 137 

The earth, from its place between heaven and hell, is 
the battle-field on which these two great associations 
have striven for dominion during sixty centuries. 

There is an essential opposition between them 
in the spirit animating them, in the chiefs who gov- 
ern them, in the motives urging them to action, in 
the works peculiar to them, in the end toward which 
they tend, and in the goal whereto they reach. Yet 
these two societies agree in one single point — in the 
proof they furnish us of the power of souls when 
they unite to obtain the same end. 

One comes from heaven and leads men to 
heaven, along the way of virtue. The other has its 
beginning in hell, and leads the most part of its 
members along the broad way of sin. 

How many marvels on one side, how many 
crimes on the other ! Here the divinest virtues grow 
up and unfold themselves, enlightened by the sun of 
truth and* made fruitful by charity. There, hideous 
vices like unclean reptiles propagate themselves in the 
dens of error. But to what are results so important 
for good or for evil to be attributed ? We repeat, 
that it is to the power of association. Virtue, to be 
fruitful, must combine with virtue ; and it is only 
because vice unites with vice that it spreads so fright- 
fully. 

[Readers from English speaking countries may not readily 
understand Father Ramiere*s allusions to the compact organi- 
zation of secret societies opposed to the Church. But in what 



138 NOTE — ON ANTI-CATHOLIC SOCIETIES. 

are called the Latin nations, both in Europe and America, 
notably in France, Italy, and Mexico, these societies have 
long openly played a great part in anti- Christian politics, 
especially in the complete secularization of the training of the 
young and in oppressive restrictions on the liberty of action 
of the clergy. Our own public, however, has a long experi- 
ence of the efforts of anti- Catholic associations, such as the 
Bible and Foreign Mission Societies abroad, and the Evan- 
gelical Alliance and Children's Aid Societies at home, all 
having for one of their chief objects the perversion of the 
Church's children. The single difficulty of securing united 
aid for Catholic publications, when compared with the splen- 
didly equipped publishing houses of non- Catholics and their 
provisions for the gratuitous distribution of their noxious 
literature, would show the power of association as well as 
the truth of our Lord's words — the children of this world are 
wiser in their generation than the children of light. 5 '] 

5 St. Luke, xvi. 8. 



THE NEED OF UNION OF SOULS. 139 



VI. 

Practical conclusion of what has been said on association. 

Relations between the Apostleship of Prayer and the 

Association for the Propagation of the Faith. 

What conclusion should we draw from the con- 
siderations on which we have dwelt ? 

Association is the unfailing means set up by our 
Lord Himself, to secure to prayer an all-powerful 
efficiency. More than anything else it brings us near 
to God. Even in the natural order, it is a source of 
resistless strength and the groundwork of most 
wonderful achievements. In the supernatural order, 
it is the end of all the labors of the Man-God, the 
condition of success for His work, the sovereign 
object of His desires. In every age, most of all in 
our own, Satan and his followers make unh(ard-of 
efforts to put to the profit of their infernal hatred so 
unequalled a power. I ask, then, have we nothing to 
do on our side ? Shall not we also make one supreme 
effort to draw closer the bond of divine charity, and 
thus withstand the machinations of the hosts of 
Satan? Shall not we seek to realize yet more com- 
pletely that ideal 'which our Saviour set before us 
when He was leaving us — to unite us together in one 
communion of desire and prayer, even as God the 
Father and God the Son are united in the breathing 
forth of their Divine Spirit? Yes, it is along this 



140 THE PROPAGATION OF THE FAITH. 

line we have to labor, if we would grow in strength 
and gain ground over our enemies ! Nothing can 
be more according to the desires of the Heart of 
Jesus than an association of which such union shall 
be the special aim. It should form a vast reunion 
of all the souls most devoted to the cause of God. 
It should say to them over and over that they are 
not called to sanctify themselves alone, that it is in 
their power to give aid to the Church by effective 
work for the salvation of souls, that an Apostleship 
so useful to sinners is also the most efficient means 
they can use for their own sanctification. An asso- 
ciation like this would excite them to pray more, 
would spread and keep up the spirit of zeal, and 
would awake among the children of the Church 
love and devotedness for their divine Mother, and 
thus unite souls more closely together. How then 
could it be other than a weight of salvation cast into 
the scales of the world's destiny, and a powerful 
help to the cause of God? It seems to us- that to 
ask this question is to answer it. 

We foresee, however, a difficulty that may present 
itself to the minds of some of our readers. They 
will tell us this league of prayers existed long before 
the creation of this new work. It is the Association 
for the Propagation of the Faith. What need of 
establishing a similar association, at the risk of 
hindering the development of a work so useful ? 

Certainly, we never thought that the Apostle- 



THE APOSTI.ESHIP AIDS THE PROPAGATION. 141 

ship of Prayer could have any such effect. Even, 
had we not been persuaded that by compassing a 
different end from the Association for the Propaga- 
tion of the Faith, it could also favor the action and 
aid the development of this latter work, we should 
never have dreamed of its establishment. 

But it is far from being the case that any incom- 
patibility exists between these two works. On the 
contrary, we find in the marvellous success of the 
Association founded forty years ago at the foot of 
the sanctuary of Our Lady of Fourviere, one of the 
strongest motives for spreading that which had its 
birth, in the year 1844, near the no less famous 
shrine of Our Lady of Le Puy.* The reader will 
allow us to explain briefly our reason for this ; we 
shall then have finished setting before him our thought 
in all its fulness. 

No Catholic is ignorant of the immense success 
of the work of the Propagation of the Faith. We 
need not speak of the sacred flame of charity and 
zeal which it has rekindled among the Christians of 
Europe, by making general its practices of almsgiving 
and prayer. To this work, that is to say, to the 
material means it furnishes to the great number of 
Catholic missions, numberless souls redeemed with 

* [The Association for the Propagation of the Faith is 
principally due to the inspired efforts of a young lady of Lyons 
(of which Fourviere is a suburb), in the year 18 19; the same 
person — Mile. Jaricot — afterward founded the Living Rosary, 
and interested herself in the work of Father Ramiere.] 



142 SUCCESS OF THE PROPAGATION. 

the Saviour's blood will owe their eternal salvation. 
Savage countries daily see new churches rising to the 
glory of the living God above the ruins of their 
pagodas. Thousands of children, baptized at the 
moment of th ir death, are put in possession of the 
heavenly inheritance. Men who had naught of the 
Christian but the name have the unhoped-for blessing 
of the last Sacraments' before they die. Idolaters 
renounce their errors and come daily to swell the 
flock of Jesus Christ. The Church, with the vast 
zeal that burns in her heart, unfolds on a larger scale 
and in wider measure her saving activity. Strong in 
the undying promises made to her and in the Divine 
Spirit that animates her, she realizes, more perhaps 
than at any previous time since the Apostles, the 
words of the Son of God : Go, teach all nations. 
To what are these advantages due ? Is it not to the 
wonderful work of the Propagation of the Faith? 
The pronounced movement toward Catholicity, which 
is so strong in our day at nearly every point of the 
globe, has received its chief impulse from this associa- 
tion — after God. These are the miracles of the work ; 
none can deny them. 

Yet there is a contrast that cannot but strike 
every reflecting mind. How weak are the resources 
at the disposal of the work of the Propagation of the 
Faith, when compared with the immense and mani- 
fold needs of our missionaries ! And yet, how 
wonderful are the results ! 



PROTESTANT PROPAGANDISM. 143 

Without any doubt, we ought not to give the 
whole credit of these marvels to sums of money 
which are always very moderate when divided among 
so many needs, and which besides, of their own 
nature, are out of all proportion with the salvation of 
souls. The Protestant propaganda sows its gold by 
the handful, to gain proselytes; and until now it has 
not wrought a single lasting conversion.* Whence 
comes this difference? It is important that we 
should understand it well. 

On the one side; I see exhaustless treasures ; but 
it is cold, lifeless metal scattered by icy hands. 
Assign as large a share as you will to the invincible 
error and the good intentions of certain of these 
non-Catholics who are in good faith. Their indi- 
vidual dispositions change nothing in the character 
of their work. Now, this character is heresy, that is, 
it is opposed to unity, and consequently to true 
charity. The heart that gives is not moved by the 
divine impulse. The heart that distributes too often 
obeys a selfish motive of some low interest or 
unworthy speculation. Ought we to be astonished 
that the heart that receives should remain untouched 
by the truth ? 

This has not been the case with Catholic 
mission-work. Its treasure has been scanty, yet how 

* [This is no 1- mere assertion. During the past year, the 
English Protestant Canon Taylor has strongly pointed out the 
"failure " of Protestant missionary efforts.] 



144 THE SUPPORT OF CATHOLIC MISSIONS. 

muJi more precious! Sometimes it has been made 
up of the generous gifts of the rich. In the light of 
faith the rich man has held himself happy to exchange 
his gold for souls redeemed with the blood of a God 
and destined for eternal happiness. Oftener still it is 
made up of the alms of the poor, of the fruit of their 
savings and the sweat of their brow, of the widow's 
mite. But this almsgiving, however limited it may 
be, is the alms of charity ; and it is distributed by 
the hands of charity. Moved by zeal and made 
fruitful by prayer, enlivened by love and having for 
beginning and end naught but the glory of God and 
the happiness of men, what could it do else than 
touch and convert hearts ? How could the daughter 
of charity bring forth aught but charity, especially in 
the hands of the ministers of the God of charity, 
whose sweat — and sometimes their blood — falls upon 
the alms they receive? Doubt it not, this is the 
secret of the wonders we admire. This is the vital 
principle which gives to the work of the Propagation 
of the Faith its strength, its power, and its prosperity. 

We have dwelt on this point because it is of 
importance to our end. We cannot make our plan 
understood, nor justify our design otherwise than by 
first establishing a truth that gives us its key and 
must be its unchanging foundation. 

Indeed, it is to the prayer, to the holy desires, 
to the burning zeal of the members of the Propaga- 
tion of the Faith, united with the toils, the suffer- 



NATURE OF THE APOSTLESHIP's HELP. 145 

ings, and sometimes with the blood of the mission- 
aries, that we must attribute the plentiful harvest with 
which God crowns the undertakings of these worthy 
laborers, and the rapid progress made in many- 
places by the Catholic religion. For it is not so 
much the money, as the charity and the prayers of 
the Associates, that paves the way to these wonders. 
From this a further thought naturally springs up in 
our mind. What would not be the advantages 
offered by an association that, while it would give 
strong help to so useful a work and urge on the 
faithful to increase its resources, should give a yet 
larger part to prayer and make of this its chief and 
almost its only aim? Such an association would 
address itself in a special manner to the members of 
religious communities, who are so much the more 
capable of aiding the Church by the almsgiving of 
their prayers, as their vow makes it impossible for 
them to give material aid. Such an association would 
be founded on this principle, which is beyond dis- 
pute, that supernatural means have the more imme- 
diate and necessary relation with a supernatural end 
such as the conversion and salvation of souls. It 
would thus apply itself in an especial manner to these 
means; it would develop and keep ever awake in its 
associates both zeal and charity; and it would lead 
them to solicit continually the graces of salvation 
for the souls of poor unbelievers. Let us imagine to 
ourselves such a league, made up of the pious faithful 



146 THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. 

and comprising a great number of those religious 
houses which are the ornament and consolation of 
the Church. Let us suppose that these souls, so dear 
to God and burning with the desire of procuring His 
glory, endeavor to supply by their prayers what their 
condition of life or their vocation does not permit 
them to do by the word and toil of the priestly 
apostleship. And let us see, too, the holiest part of 
the Church and its most eminent members, pastors 
and faithful alike, mingling their efforts to give God 
new children. What would not be the result of 
prayers thus united, what would not be the strength 
of the entreaties which together would thus lay siege 
to the Heart of God ! Everything in such an asso- 
ciation would secure it the very greatest efficiency 
— the principle of zeal that would animate it, the 
nature of the elements of which it would be composed, 
and the extent as well as the permanence of its 
action. 

This is the thought which has given birth to our 
work. To make it better understood, we must glance 
at the different causes which must co-operate in the 
spread of the Gospel, either as means or as con- 
ditions. 

Faith cometh by hearing — by preaching — the 
Apostle says. First of all, then, the Church has to 
send to unbelieving nations apostles who shall 
announce to them the good tidings of salvation. 
Thanks be to God, this condition has never ceased 



MATERIAL NEEDS OF THE APOSTLE. 147 

to be faithfully fulfilled. Apostles have never been 
wanting in the Church ; and in our day they come 
to her aid in greater number and fervor than ever 
before. A great number of religious congregations 
vie with each other in zeal, helping the Church, to 
the very extremities of the world, in bearing that 
witness to Jesus Christ which she is bound to give. 
At the head of all, the Congregation of the Propa- 
ganda is like a mainspring that gives activity and 
regularity to the unceasing movement of the Apostle- 
ship. 

But when the mission has been offered and taken 
up, all is not yet at an end. How shall the mission- 
ary, in his far-off country, support his material exist- 
ence? How shall he provide for the cost of wor- 
ship among a people wretched and destitute of every 
resource? How, even, shall he cover the expense of 
his long and costly journey? We can understand 
that the aid of money is necessary to him • it is the 
indispensable condition of his existence and of his 
action. The work of the Propagation of the Faith has 
especially taken upon itself to provide for this impera- 
tive need ; and we know with what success it is 
doing this. 

The apostle has been sent out. He reaches his 
destination ; he preaches, the good tidings are heard. 
Is this all? Surely not. To be saved, it is not 
enough to hear. It is necessary to believe, to love, 
to act, and in case of need to suffer. But who 



148 THE UNION OF THE TWO WORKS, 

shall give to the poor unbeliever, to the slave of 
Satan, such heavenly sentiments and a strength so 
superhuman ? Grace alone has this power ; it alone 
is the true cause of salvation. Preaching and alms- 
giving are only the instruments and the conditions of 
this divine work. Most of all, then, by winning 
grace from God, can the Christian give efficient help 
to the salvation of unbelievers. Now the easiest 
means, the means beyond fail, for obtaining grace, 
is prayer, and especially the prayer of a great number of 
hearts united in the Heart of Jesus. It is clear, then, 
that an association of this kind cannot be other than a 
powerful aid to the apostolic congregations and to 
the Association for the Propagation of the Faith. 
While these make ready for the use of grace those 
instruments and means through which it is wont to 
pour itself out, this will obtain for these instruments 
that very grace without which they can do nothing. 
We have said enough to make plain both the 
difference between the Apostleship of Prayer and the 
Association for the Propagation of the Faith, and the 
bond of union between these two works. The for- 
mer, far from encroaching on the ground of the lat- 
ter, gives it important aid and happily completes it. 
Its most useful Associates it enlists in religious com- 
munities which can give but feeble aid to the work 
of the Propagation of the Faith ; while among Chris- 
tians living in the world it inculcates more deeply 
and recalls more constantly the great duty of zeal. 



NEED OF FAITH AND ZEAL. 140 

These associations are therefore distinct, but they are 
closely bound together. 

If anyone should still doubt of the utility of the 
Apostleship of Prayer to the work of the Propaga- 
tion of the Faith, it will be sufficient to ask a single 
question. What would be necessary in order that 
this Association, already so fruitful, should see its 
resources multiplied an hundredfold in a few years, 
so that for 5,000,000 which it now gathers together 
every year, it would receive 500,000,000? Would 
it be necessary that the rirhes of Europe should 
increase in the same ratio ? No, there would simply 
be need that the spirit of faith and zeal should gain 
over the hearts of Christians a hold one hundred 
times stronger, and thus make it a hundred times 
easier for them to levy on their pleasures, and their 
slavish following of the fashions, and the luxurious 
furnishing of their houses, this glorious tribute of 
charity. Now our association has for its end to fan 
unceasingly this heavenly flame of faith and zeal, and 
to reach this end it takes the means most efficacious 
— prayer. 



CHAPTER III. 

THIRD SOURCE OF POWER: UNION WITH THE 
SACRED HEART. 

ANALYSIS. I. The prayers of Christians are the prayers 
of Jesus Christ. Source of prayer in the Heart of Jesus — Christ- 
ians and Christ form one mystical body — doctrine of incorpora- 
tion of Christians with Jesus Christ. Nature of the life of this 
body — life proceeds from the Head— parable of the Vine and 
branches. Communication of the divinity to men by the Incar- 
nation — Abide in Me. 

II. The Christianas prayers are produced in him by the 
Holy Ghost. The Soul of Christ's mystical body— example of 
the human body — the spirit making alive. Teaching of St. 
Paul — prayer divine. 

III. Holy Communion , a means of union of life and 
prayers with Jesus Christ. Need of renewal of life — example 
of corporeal food— the Gift of our Lord. Teaching of St. Cyril 
of Alexandria. The Eucharist, a new source of strength to 
prayer — the true heart of the Church — chief object of the devo- 
tion to the Sacred Heart. Our Lord's prayer in the Blessed 
Sacrament — His call to all Christians. 

IV. Conclusion of the whole first part. 



I5o 



The Apostleship's Power from the Heart of 
the Incarnate Word and the Holy Ghost. 

We have still a step to mount upward to the 
height of the divine mercies. We must find the chief 
source of the power of our prayers, which is also our 
most authentic and unquestionable title to greatness, 
the most solid support of our hope, the most precious 
of all those gifts by which, according to St. Peter, 
we are made partakers of the divine nature. 1 

It was an easy task for us to see how prayer is the 
fittest disposition which God could ask from our 
weakness for winning His grace \ and how associa- 
tion increases beyond all limit the power of this 
means of salvation. But prayer, even when it issues 
forth from the purest heart and is offered with the 
liveliest faith and the deepest humility and with per- 
severance the most unflinching, and even though it 
bears up to heaven the desires of many united as one, 
as incense of many kinds sends up delicious fragrance 
in a single flame — prayer of this kind, even under 
conditions the most favorable for its success, must 

1 II. St. Peter, i. 4. 

151 



152 PRAYER A DIVINE WORK. 

always, so it should seem, remain a human work, and 
consequently out of all proportion with the divine 
grace it is to win. 

Yet this is not at all the case. Prayer is a divine 
work, quite as much as the grace for which it asks. 
It is divine in the Fountain-head whence it issues 
forth — in the Heart of the Incarnate Word. It is 
divine from the Principle that produces it in our 
hearts — the Holy Ghost. And just because God the 
Father recognizes in our prayer the pleading of His 
beloved Son and of His Spirit, He cannot refuse to 
give ear to it; He is, as it were, forced to allow His 
most precious gifts to be torn from Him by its holy 
violence. 

These are not mere figures of speech ; they are 
articles of our faith, as unquestionable as they are 
consoling. It is now our task to give account of 
them. 



CHRISTIANS ONE BODY WITH CHRIST. 153 



I. 

The prayers of Christians are the prayers of Jesus Christ. 

Our prayers, we have said, take their beginning 
in the Heart of Jesus ; so that they are the prayers 
of Jesus Christ as really as, or rather more really than 
they are our prayers. How is this ? Because, in 
the order of salvation, all Christians form with Jesus 
Christ but a single body, of which He is the Head 
and they are the members. From this it follows 
that no supernatural action can be conceived other- 
wise than from the inspiration of Jesus Christ, nor 
be begun, or followed out, or fulfilled but by His help. 

Would that it might be given us to make all 
Christians grasp all that is real and divine in this 
doctrine of their incorporation with Jesus Christ ! 

Undoubtedly our baptism, by which this miracle 
has been wrought, has not deprived us of our indi- 
viduality nor of our personal liberty. In the same 
way, when by nutrition we assimilate to ourselves 
different articles of food, their molecules still remain 
distinct from those which before went to make up 
our body. That which henceforth makes of the 
nourishment we have taken but a single thing with 
ourselves, is that it begins to live of our life and to 
move under the control of our will. In a word, it 
becomes an integral part of one whole, which has its 
own existence, its own life, its own movement and 



154 JESUS OUR DIVINE HEAD. 

work and destiny. Thus it is with Christians whom 
baptism has incorporated with Jesus Christ. They 
keep their individual existence. They even have an 
advantage over the merely material parts of our 
body; they still are and ever remain persons. But 
while keeping their true personality in regard to 
other Christians with whom they are thus united, 
they none the less form with them and with Jesus 
Christ, Who is their common Head, a single body, 
which has a divine life and divine faculties and a 
divine destiny. 

Everyone knows that it is in the head, or rather 
in the brain-matter of which the head is the chief 
storehouse, that we find the seat of the sensitive life 
and activity of the body. There all the impressions 
which affect our organs meet together. Thence the 
signal is given for the least movements communicated 
to the remotest members \ and each member loses all 
its power of feeling, and moving, the moment com- 
munication is interrupted between itself and the head. 
Now this dependence, this union, the closeness of 
which scientific observation is daily proving more 
clearly, is a touching image of our relations with 
Jesus our Divine Head. Long before science had 
unveiled the mysteries of our organism, St. Paul 
made use of this comparison, to make us understand 
that, in the order of salvation, we could have no 
feeling, no movement, no life save in Jesus Christ ; 
and that all our works and all our prayers, the 



THE VINE AND ITS BRANCHES. 155 

moment they become supernatural, are really the 
works and the prayers of Jesus Christ. Our Divine 
Saviour Himself had taught us this truth before, 
under the no less striking image of the union existing 
between the vine and its branches. In His discourse 
to His disciples before the Last Supper, He said : 
Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot 
bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so 
neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the 
vine, you the branches : he that abideth in Me, and 
I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for without 
Me you can do nothing. . . . If you abide in Me, 
and My words abide in you, you shall ask whatever 
you will, and it shall be done unto you. 2 

Do we now understand the reason of the unfail- 
ing power of our prayers ? How could they be other- 
wise than efficacious and all-powerful, since they are 
prayers truly divine? It is like the words pro- 
nounced by the mouth of a man, and the looks sent 
forth from his eyes; they are the words and looks 
of intelligence. It is not that there is any intelli- 
gence in mouth and eyes, but because the words and 
looks are produced in these bodily organs by an 
intelligent soul. In the same way, the sighs of the 
Christian heart, the entreaties spoken by his lips, are 
things truly divine, because of the Divine Fountain- 
head from which they come. 

If we would have an exact idea of our dignity 

2 St. John, xv. 
8 



156 HUMANITY AND THE INCARNATION. 

as Christians, we must consider it as a sharing in the 
Incarnation of the Son of God. It was not to one 
single body and one single soul that the Son of God 
designed to unite Himself, when He became incar- 
nate in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 
It was to all humanity, and to each one of its mem- 
bers. The Incarnation had for its end to make us 
divine. The Holy Fathers do not hesitate to make 
use of this expression, and they are the warrant for 
its exactness. 

Most certainly, there was to be but one single 
body and one single soul so closely united to the 
Person of the Son of God as to be deprived of their 
own personality, that they might be clothed with 
His ; this was the Body and Soul which make up the 
Sacred Humanity of our Saviour. But if Jesus Christ 
alone substantially possesses the fulness of Divinity, 
all those who are united with Him in holy baptism 
shall share in this fulness, each according to his 
measure. For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the 
Godhead, corporally. — And of His fulness we all have 
received, and grace for grace? His character as Head 
precisely consists in this exclusive power which He 
has, of communicating to others the supernatural life 
which dwells in its entireness in Him. He lives in 
all Christians, as the head lives in all the members. 
In them He follows out the great undertaking which 
He only began during His mortal existence. Through 

3 Colossians, ii. 9 ; St. John, i. 16. 



CHRIST IN HIS MEMBERS. 157 

« 

them He teaches the same doctrine ; in them He 
does works, like in all things to those He wrought 
m other days, and He has even promised to work 
greater things in them. 4 In them He undergoes the 
same trials, He fulfils the same destiny, He offers to 
His Father the same prayers. Once again, how can 
we wonder that such prayers should be heard without 
fail? Can God the Father have ceased to love His 
Son, and to find His chief bliss in the communica- 
tion He makes to Him of all His good things and in 
the glory He receives back from Him in turn for that 
with which He crowns Him ? Can He be sparing of 
His gifts toward the members of the body of His 
Son ? Or will He not rather glorify Him and thus 
glorify Himself, by the pouring out of His graces and 
by the fruitfulness with which he is well-pleased to 
endow the branches of His Vine? In this is My 
Father glorified, that you bring forth very much fruit} 
And our Saviour said, at the moment of working 
a striking miracle : Father, I give Thee thanks that 
Thou hast heard Me, and I knew that Thou hearest 
Me always* Who can persuade himself that Christ 
has lost this filial and divine assurance when, to 
spread the glory of His Father, it pleases Him to 
make of man the instrument of His works and 
the mouthpiece of His prayers? Let us not have 

4 He that believeth in Me, the works that I do he also shall 
do, and greater than these shall he do. St. John, xiv. 12. 

5 St John, xv. 6 id., xi. 41-2. 



158 ABIDE IN ME. 

thoughts like this, but rather strive to fulfil the con- 
ditions which our charitable Saviour points out to 
us for obtaining all things from His Father. If you 
abide in Me, and My words abide in you : you shall 
ask whatever you will, and it shall be done unto you. 
We are not to be content with simply doing nothing 
that can drive Him from our hearts. Let us never 
act, never send up a prayer, without uniting ourselves 
with Him, without taking instruction from Him and 
securing His co-operation with us. Then we may 
ask for whatever we will with the greatest confidence, 
—especially for that which our Divine Saviour desires 
above all things — the conversion of sinners, the sal- 
vation of the world, and the triumph of the Church ; 
and it shall be granted to us. 



THE SOUL, THE UNITY OF THE BODY'. 159 



II. ' 

The Christian's prayers are produced in him by the Holy Ghost. 

We have not yet said all that concerns this con- 
soling mystery of our incorporation with Jesus Christ. 
As yet we know but very imperfectly the bond which 
unites us to Him and makes us members of His mys- 
tical body — in virtue of which our actions are His 
actions and our prayers His prayers. 

That which constitutes the unity of the human 
body is the soul. The material elements, of which 
each of our members is made up, but a short time 
since belonged to outside bodies. They become 
integral parts of our own body only when our soul 
seizes hold on them and makes of them its own 
organs, animates them, and communicates to them, 
through the medium of the nerves, that sensitiveness 
and activity of which the brain is undoubtedly the 
storehouse and the instrument, but of which the soul 
alone is the principle. It is therefore the soul which 
unites the members with the head. It is the soul 
which keeps up between them a constant communica- 
tion. The soul, being present in every part of the 
body, though it has its chief residence in the head, 
sees through the eyes, hears by the ears, acts with the 
hands, walks with the feet, and feels with the whole 
body. We do not deny that it may have some vital 
fluid, as its immediate instrument. Some such 



160 NEED OF A SOUL FOR THE CHURCH. 

existence science may think it has discovered ; and 
its function would be to transmit sensation and 
movement from the extremities to the centre, from 
the members to the head, and from the head to the 
members.* But this fluid itself — the vital spirit, as 
the ancients called it— could receive from the soul 
alone the power of accomplishing its work. The 
true vital spirit of the human body, once again, is 
the reasonable soul. 

Of necessity, there must be something similar in 
the mystical body of Jesus Christ. If there were not 
a close and living bond uniting us to Him — a bond 
maintaining between us and Him constant com- 
munication, wide enough to embrace all souls that 
live in the supernatural life, in heaven and on earth 
and in purgatory, and therefore close enough to 
unite each of these souls immediately with its Head 
— if there were not a vital spirit quick enough in its 
transmission and powerful enough in its action to 
reproduce on the instant the thoughts and feelings 
and will of the Saviour in His members, however far 
away, it would be only by a very inexact figure of 
speech that the Church could be called His mystical 
body. 

* [At the present — scarcely thirty years since the above 
was written — few scientific men would defend the " vital fluid," 
so uncertain are the dogmas of human reason. The materialists 
now in vogue often count vitality as a quality of matter under 
certain conditions ; but they are confessedly unable to explain 
the persistent oneness of its action except by the soul.] 



THE SPIRIT OF JESUS CHRIST. 161 

And such a bond really exists. There is a life- 
giving spirit that dwells in the Person of Jesus Christ 
as having in Him its chief seat, and passes on to us, 
with unbroken movement, all the feelings of jesus 
Christ, just as it makes Jesus Christ Himself feel 
whatever touches us. It makes us see in His light, 
act with His strength, in a word, live with His life. 
How then can we doubt that we are His members, 
in as true a meaning as that our head and our feet 
are the members of our own body? How, conse- 
quently, can we doubt that our works and our prayers 
are divine? 

There is nothing in Scripture laid down more 
clearly and forcibly than this real presence of the 
Spirit of Jesus Christ in every Christian who is in 
a state of grace. If we desired to bring out this 
teaching in its full light, it would be necessary to 
copy whole pages from the Old and the New Testa- 
ment alike. Most of all, it would be necessary to 
bring forward in their entirety the Epistles of St. . 
Paul ; for on this dogma is based the whole sublime 
theology of the great Apostle. We may recall a 
single point of his teaching that will allow of our 
following up this chain of reasoning. 6 

Who are the two men of whose existence in 
every Christian St. Paul speaks ? Put off the old 

6 [St. Paul's Epistles are here cited as follows] : Ephesians, 
iv. ; Romans, viii. ; Galatians, iv., v. ; II. Corinthians, iii. ; Phile- 
mon, ii. 



162 THE SPIRIT PRESENT IN CHRISTIANS. 

man, who is corrupted according to the desire of error. 
And be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on 
the new man, who, according to God, is created in 
justice and holiness of truth. The old man is the 
man of nature; it is the soul inasmuch as it is 
endowed only with the life of reason, too often, alas ! 
overpowered by the lusts of the flesh. What is the 
new man ? It is the man of grace, that is to say, the 
soul inasmuch as it is made alive by the Spirit of 
Jesus Christ, Which gives it a divine life, just as the 
soul uniting' itself with the body gives the latter a 
rational life. The Spirit of Jesus Christ is therefore 
present, according to St. Paul, in the soul of every 
Christian. Thanks to this Spirit, we are no longer 
of the reprobate crowd, who walk according to the 
flesh. Of course, so long as we are on this earth, 
the Spirit will not so rule in us as to free us from all 
inward rebellion. Like Rebecca, we carry in our 
bosom two men who fight against each other. The 
flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against 
the flesh. But it depends on ourselves whether the 
victory shall be given to the Spirit, and whether we 
shall suffer ourselves to be led by Its light and be 
moved by Its unction. Then indeed we shall be 
truly the sons of God, since we shall live the life of 
His only Son. For whosoever are led by the Spirit 
of God they are the sons of God. We shall be free, 
because we shall have within us the Supreme Spirit 
that carries liberty wherever It enters. Now the 



CHRISTIANS OTHER CHRIST5. 163 

Lord is a Spirit : and where the Spirit of the Lord is, 
there is liberty. We shall be assured of immortality, 
because we shall have within us the Spirit of life that 
raised up Jesus Christ from the dead. If the Spirit 
of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in 
you : He that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead 
shall quicken also your mortal bodies, because of His 
Spirit that dwelleth in you. Then, in a single word, 
we shall become other Jesus Christs. Consequently, 
our prayers will no longer be our prayers, but the 
prayers of Jesus Christ. This is indeed necessary, 
for how can we of ourselves give forth speech pro- 
portionate with that heavenly dignity with which we 
are clothed ? How shall we learn the language of 
that divine society into which we have been 
admitted, unless this tongue so strange to our nature 
be taught to us? We know not what we should 
pray for as we ought. But the Spirit of God, Which 
is present in us, not as fully, but as really as in the 
Soul of Jesus Christ, reproduces in the depths of our 
soul the feelings of our Saviour.* It makes our 

* Author's Note. — We speak here only of that union of 
the Holy Ghost with the human soul of Jesus Christ, which 
constitutes or accompanies the sanctifying grace of which that 
Sacred Soul has received the fulness. Since the sanctifying 
grace of the Man-God is, according to theologians, of the same 
kind as our own, it follows that the union produced by this grace 
between the Soul of Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost is also of 
the same kind as the union of this Divine Spirit with the souls 
of the just. The difference between the one union and the 

8* 



164 ST. PAULAS TEACHING. 

heart experience a counter-pulsation of His Divine 
Heart, as regularly as the least arteries of the human 
body give answer to the beatings of the heart. It 
makes us send up to heaven unspeakable groanings, 
like to those which issue forth from the breast of the 
Son of God. It teaches us to call God our Father, 
or rather It thus calls Him by our mouth and cries 
unto Him — Abba, Father — with that tone of filial 
love which the Heart of the Heavenly Father knows 
not to resist. 

Prayers like this cannot but be heard. It would 
be the most amazing of all miracles, the most contra- 
dictory of all impossibilities, that God the Father 
should repel the prayers which His Divine Son forms 
in us by His Spirit. Indeed, it is God the Father 
Who is their first Author. For the Spirit of God, 
Which St. Paul calls the Spirit of the Son, because 
It proceeds really from the Son and because It has 
been given in all Its fulness to the Sacred Humanity 
of our Saviour, does not belong to Him in such a way 
that It is not equally from the Father. On the con- 
trary, It is the fruit— the common term — of the love 
of the Father and the Son, Who unite in producing 
It by the most ineffable of all unions. Every desire 
therefore which this Divine Spirit inspires in the 
Heart of Jesus Christ and afterward communicates to 
the heart of Christians, mounts up to God the Father 

other consists in the fact that the second is only a participation 
of the first. (See Suarez, de Incarn, % disp. xviii.) 



PRAYER DIVINE AND ALL-POWERFUL. 165 

as to its source. How then can God the Father 
refuse to make use of His almighty power in carry- 
ing out those desires of which He is Himself the 
beginning? How can He Who enters into hearts 
mistake in the sighings of the Christian the echo of 
His own voice, the speech of His own Spirit, the 
expression of His own love? He that searcheth the 
heart, knoweth what the Spirit desireth. We do not 
hesitate to repeat that, in face of this doctrine, the 
all-powerful efficacy of the prayers of the Christian 
can no longer be for us a mystery and a subject of 
wonder. We have the right to be astonished at one 
single thing only. It is that so unlimited a power, 
unceasingly placed by the Holy Ghost at the disposal 
of every Christian in the state of grace, does not 
day by day work greater miracles, and that it has not 
yet changed the face of the world. 



166 NEED OF RENEWAL OF LIFE. 



III. 

Holy Communion, a means of renewing the life of Jesus Christ 
in us, and of uniting our prayers more closely with His own. 

In holy baptism, the Spirit of God planted 
within us the seed of the life of Jesus Christ. All 
the efforts of His grace tend to develop it. But 
unhappily, it is not so rooted in our soul that it can- 
not be torn up by sin, or stifled by the lusts of the 
flesh, or withered and dried up in the unwholesome 
air of the world. What means shall our Divine Head 
take to prevent His members from losing, little by 
little, this life which is the fruit of His death ? It 
shall be a means worthy of Him, bearing the seal of 
infinite wisdom and power and love. Not only must 
the divine life in us be kept from all corruption, but 
day by day it must take on a new growth. Day by 
day our union with Jesus Christ must become closer. 
Day by day His Spirit must be communicated to us 
more plentifully ; and day by day our desires and 
our prayers shall be more closely blended with the 
desires and prayers of His Sacred Heart. The means 
for all this is the Holy Eucharist. 

Life of every kind must have food suited to its 
nature, and only the frequent use of such food can 
make up for its daily losses. Therefore our divine 
life must have its own divine food. As we are made 
up of spirit and body together, it is right that this 



THE DIVINE FOOD OF THE SOUL. 167 

food should not be purely spiritual, but that grace 
should be contained therein under a sensible cover- 
ing. ' There is nothing better fitted for this than the 
Body of the Saviour, that Divine Body all penetrated 
with the Holy Ghost and made present to us under 
the appearance of bread. This is the ineffable food 
that ever more and more makes us to be filled unto 
all the fulness of God. It is not a dead and purely 
material body that we receive. Such food would be 
as nothing to us. It is the living, spiritual, and life- 
giving Body of the last Adam made into a quickening 
spirit — the Flesh of the Word of Life Who was in the 
Father at^the beginning, possessing in Himself the 
life of all that should one day exist. This Divine 
Flesh, by uniting Itself with our flesh, makes us live 
of the life of Jesus Christ, as Jesus Christ Himself 
lives of the life of His Father. As the living Father 
hath sent Me, and I live by the Father : so he that 
eateth Me, the same also shall live by Me? 

Thus too we come into perfect union with our 
brethren. St. Cyril unfolds to us this wondrous 
mystery, and no Doctor of the Church seems to have 
grasped more completely its meaning : 

" Jesus Christ desires to unite us perfectly with 
God and among ourselves, melting us all, as it were, 
together, however far removed we may be from each 
other in body and spirit. To do this He brings 
all believers unto Himself by the eating of the same 

7 Ephesians, iii. 19; St. John, i., vi. ; I. Corinthians, xv. 45. 



168 THE EUCHARIST A STRENGTH TO PRAYER. 

Body — no other than His own Sacred Body. By 
this Holy Communion He makes them all concor- 
poreal among themselves and with Him. We, being 
many, are 07ie Bread, one Body, all that partake of 
one Bread. Jesus Christ cannot be divided ; and for 
this reason the Church is called the body of Jesus 
Christ, and we His members. This union St. Paul 
calls the great mystery of godliness, which in other 
generations was not known to the sons of men, as it is 
now revealed to His holy Apostles and Prophets in the 
Spirit, namely, that the Gentiles should be fellow -heirs 
and of the same body and copartners of His promise 
in Christ Jesus. ' ' 8 

O union beyond all understanding ! O abyss of 
love, into which the heart plunges with so much the 
more delight as the mind is unable to sound its 
depths ■! 

Everyone can see the new strength which the 
Christian's prayers must draw from this mystery. 
Will he not dare to ask all things, when he bears 
within his breast the Heart of Jesus? Then, truly, 
his prayers shall be blended into one with those of 
his Divine Saviour. Then, too, he shall have within 
himself the Holy Spirit, no longer in limited 
measure, but in all Its fulness. Then can he offer 
to God the Father the wishes of His well-beloved. 
Son, while he sends up before Him his own desires, 

8 St. Cyrill. Alex. XI. in Joan. xi. ; I. Corinthians, x. 17, 
Ephesians, iii. 5, 6, iv. 23, 30, I. Timothy, iii 16. 



THE SACRED HEART IN THE EUCHARIST. 169 

all burning with the boundless charity he holds 
within himself, not now in imparted rays, but in its 
own fiery centre. 

In this mystery of love Jesus Christ is the Heart 
of the Church, rather than its Head. For this rea- 
son, it is especially in the Sacrament of the Eucha- 
rist that the devotion to the Sacred Heart loves to 
contemplate Him. If we would look upon the 
Saviour as Head of His Church, we must turn to 
heaven, where He is seated at the right hand of His 
Father, whence He moves all things and governs the 
society of Angels and of men. The head has its 
place above the body, in order to move and govern 
all the members. But the heart is placed in the 
midst of the body. There, by a hidden and mys- 
terious action, it presides over the nourishing of 
all the organs, it unceasingly renews the blood, and 
spreads through every part its heat and life. This is 
the very manner of being of Jesus Christ in the 
Eucharist; these are the tasks which He fulfils 
therein. And the principal act of that interior life, 
which He thus keeps up in His mystical body, is 
prayer. It is chiefly to renew in each Christian the 
spirit of prayer that He gives Himself to us in Holy 
Communion. It is to preserve this spirit with 
unchanged strength in the bosom of His Church, 
that He dwells ever present in the tabernacle. 

How eloquent is the lesson given us by our 
Divine Saviour from that silent pulpit, where He 



170 THE HEART OF JESUS PLEADING. 

sums up all the teachings of His life. Let us, in a 
moment of recollection, listen to Him and seek to 
understand that lasting mystery of love and prayer. 

What is Jesus Christ doing in the Eucharist ? 
Seemingly nothing, in reality everything. He loves, 
He prays, He offers Himself up ; this is His life in the 
Blessed Sacrament. He is the only source, the uni- 
versal cause of all the good wrought in the Church, 
His mystical body. How does He continue His work 
of the redemption of men ? By prayer and love — 
always living to make intercession for us. 8 He prays by 
day j and while the whole world around Him is astir 
in its commotion — while ungrateful man, forgetful of 
heaven his true country, ignores and denies his 
Saviour, and heedless of the care of his soul, sacri- 
fices his eternity to the interests of time that perish 
and to his own trivial cares — the pleading voice of 
the Divine Mediator is lifted up in man's behalf 
from the depths of the tabernacle. He prays by 
night ) and while His reasonable creatures are sunk 
in sleep — while they no longer, it would seem, have 
understanding to know or will to love their Creator — 
Jesus Christ lives, knows, adores, loves, and ceases 
not to pray — always living to make intercessioii for 
us. Generations pass away in turn from the stage of 
the world, years follow after years and centuries suc- 
ceed to centuries. Jesus Christ remains ever living, 
ever praying, and by His prayers ever sanctifying 

8 Hebrews, vii. 25. 



the Eucharist's apostleship. 171 

the generations, and bringing forth new adorers to 
His Father. Thus it is that the ancient figure of 
perpetual sacrifice becomes real \ thus He is in the 
midst of us as our prayer, substantial and ever living. 

Let us shut ourselves with Him in this blessed 
prison, where for eighteen hundred years love has 
held Him enchained, if we wish truly to understand 
the meaning of these words — Apostleship of Prayer. 
There this Apostleship is practised without inter- 
ruption, there it puts forth all its energy. Thence 
it makes fruitful the toils of apostolic laborers, it fans 
unceasingly the flame of their zeal and touches the 
hearts of those who listen to them, it consoles the 
just and calls entreatingly to sinners, it brings down 
grace from heaven and turns aside the thunderbolts 
of God's justice. In one word, it is there saving 
souls and spreading abroad life upon the earth. 

When the Apostleship of Prayer is thus con- 
sidered, it shows itself to be the strongest, the most 
fruitful, the most needed, and the sweetest of all 
apostleships. It is also the readiest to our hand and 
the easiest to practise. Is there a Christian who is 
not called to have his share in it ? It is impossible 
to profess a sincere faith in the real presence of Jesus 
Christ in the Holy Eucharist — impossible to believe 
that His unbroken occupation is to pray for us, for 
our brethren, for His Church — without being led to 
unite our prayers with His, and feeling ourselves 
obliged so to do. Still less can we receive Him into 



172 THE APOSTLESHIP OF CHOSEN SOULS. 

our bosom and feel there His Heart beating with a 
boundless desire for the salvation of souls, without 
our own heart beating in unison with His. 

Yet there are souls called to take on themselves 
a very special share in this Apostleship, and to give 
to the Heart of Jesus a co-operation of greater 
efficiency. It is those who are taught by the Spirit 
of God the secrets of the interior life. Whether they 
live in the shade of the cloister or have found means 
to make for themselves a solitude amid the world, 
they keep up with the Heart of their God a closer 
communication and a more familiar intercourse. 

They are more easily inspired with His senti- 
ments and they work more actively for His interests. 
In the body of the Church these souls are like those 
necessary, though unseen, organs that immediately 
surround the heart of man and, together with it, help 
to give movement and life to arms and feet and every 
member. Thus they obtain for the ministers of the 
Church and for all her members the graces necessary 
for fulfilling their duties. Their action is hidden, 
yet how useful it is ; they are truly the vital organs 
of prayer. To their prayer must be attributed the 
greater part of the merit of the life of the Church 
and of the works accomplished by her apostles and 
her pastors. And for their prayer is reserved before- 
hand the special affection of the Heart of God. 

In these chosen souls the Apostleship of Prayer 
is to be carried to a higher degree of perfection. 



THE CALL TO ALL CHRISTIANS. 173 

But for all that, it is by no. means their exclusive 
work, nor does it belong to any special class of per- 
sons. 

There is no Christian who is not united with the 
Heart of Jesus by the sacred character of his baptism 
and the bond of faith. There is not one who ought 
not and who cannot be united with Him by the 
far closer tie of charity and the real sharing in His 
Spirit. There is not one who is not called frequently 
to renew this spiritual union by a participation, 
equally real, in the Flesh of our Divine Saviour. 
Finally, there is not one for whom the Heart of 
Jesus does not pray without ceasing in the holy 
tabernacle, and whose prayers He is not ready to 
offer up to God His Father. Therefore, there is not 
one who cannot and who ought not to make use of 
this limitless treasure, and to pray by Jesus Christ, 
pray with Jesus Christ, pray in Jesus Christ, and last 
of all, pray for all the intentions for which Jesus 
Christ is praying. For, in a well-organized body, 
the members can have no other tendencies than those 
of the head. 



174 THE FINAL CONCLUSION. 

IV. 

Conclusion of the whole first part. 

In all we have hitherto said we have had but one 
aim — to disclose the sources from which the Apostle- 
ship of Prayer draws its strength, and to set forth in 
their full light the elements of which it is made up. 
But we could not do this without drawing a con- 
clusion from the different considerations we have had 
occasion to develop. It is this. Our Apostleship, 
when seriously put in practice and extending its 
influence, not over a few particular actions, but over 
the whole of life, is nothing else than Christian 
charity practised in all its perfection and delivered 
from all those hindrances which, in the narrowness 
of our hearts, we put in the way of its universal 
character. 

Two things are alike certain : we are obliged to 
love all men, and for the vast majority of men we 
have no means of exercising the love we owe them, 
except prayer. Accordingly, even if we had other 
means of showing our love for them, we should not 
be released from the obligation of using this, which 
is the easiest and most necessary of all. What is it 
to love, if not to wish well to those whom we love ? 
What is it to pray for the salvation of our neighbors, 
if not to express to God our desires as the well-wishers 
of their true good ? If this is so, we cannot help seeing 



THE FULFILLING OF THE LAW, 175 

that the love of all men, and prayer offered to God 
for the salvation of all men, make up but one and 
the same duty. For a love that is real enough to 
make us seriously desire the salvation of our neighbor, 
cannot help asking it, in his behalf, from the only 
Author of our salvation. The Apostleship of Prayer 
is therefore, at all times, the indispensable fulfilment 
of the great command of charity ; oftenest even it is 
the only fulfilment possible of this precept of the love 
of our neighbor which, according to St. Paul, is the 
fulfilling of the law. Such an Apostleship then must 
enter into the designs of God as certainly as does the 
duty of loving all men. We cannot remain quite 
heedless of this Apostleship without putting ourselves 
in open opposition with God, and we are sure of 
being by so much the more pleasing to Him as our 
prayer is more apostolic. It is not a counsel, or 
work of simple supererogation, nor yet a side-duty. 
It is the essential condition of life for each Christian, 
as it is for the life of the entire Church. Conse- 
quently, it is a strict duty, but at the same time the 
easiest and sweetest of duties. It is the love of that 
which is good in its full extent, it is prayer truly 
Catholic, it is the fulfilment of the precept of the 
Apostle, who bids us to reproduce in ourselves that 
mind which was also in Christ Jesus. Moreover, it 
is the carrying out of the words of our Divine 
Master : As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live 
by the Father : so he that eateth Me, the same also 



176 THE APOSTLESHIP OLD AS THE CHURCH. 

shall live by Me. 9 The Apostleship of Prayer is thus 
the simple acquittal of that debt which we contract 
each time we receive into ourselves a new share of 
the life of Jesus Christ. It is the perfect union of 
our heart with His Heart, the complete welding 
together of our interests with His interests, of our 
desires with His desires, of our life with His life. 

This work then is not calculated to bring any 
novelty into the Church. God forbid ! The Apostle- 
ship of Prayer is as old as the Church herself. It was 
solemnly established when our Saviour said to His 
Apostles : A new commandment I give unto you, that 
you love one another as I have loved you. 10 For our 
Divine Saviour has loved us by praying for the salva- 
tion of all men, and by offering Himself up for them 
in sacrifice. Therefore, we cannot love them as He 
has loved them, otherwise than by praying and by 
sacrificing ourselves for them, that is to say, by put- 
ting in practice the Apostleship of Prayer, and the 
apostleship of sacrifice which is its natural fruit. 

This Apostleship is not only as ancient as the 
Church, it is also as familiarly known to every true 
child of the Church. Each of us has practised it 
from his earliest years. The day when our mother 
taught us to join our little hands together and lisp 
the Saviour's prayer — Our Father Who art in heaven, 
Halloived be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will 

9 Romans, xiii. 10; Phi ippians, ii. 5 ; St. John, vi. 58. 

10 St. John, xiii. 34. 



NEED OF A NEW ASSOCIATION. 177 

be done on earth as it is in heaven, and the rest — that 
day we began fulfilling the apostolic vocation which 
we had received in our baptism. And whenever, 
since that day, we have said this prayer, we have done 
an apostolic deed. 

What then still remains for us to do ? Is there 
need of a new association to unfold before Christians 
a power they cannot overlook unless they forget they 
are Christians — to stir them up to perform a duty 
they are fulfilling every day ? 

Oh, doubtless we should have nothing more to 
do, were not man endowed with that strange faculty 
of knowing as if he knew not, and of making bar- 
ren, through his lack of attention, the most fruitful 
truths and those easiest to understand. We have 
s^en how the Apostleship of Prayer is very clearly 
comprised in the doctrine of our incorporation with 
Jesus Christ, which is the foundation of the whole 
Christian teaching. It is in the precept of charity, 
which is the basis of all the morality of the Gospel ; 
and it is in the Lord's Prayer, which sums up all our 
worship. There would indeed be nothing to do, 
were not this Apostleship, for the great number of 
Christians, what the redemption so clearly foretold 
by the prophets was for the Jews — a hidden mystery. 
This is unhappily the case ; and the truths we have 
just explained, evidently drawn as they are from the 
principles of our faith, are at least forgotten by a 
great number. Moreover, the great number of just 



178 WHAT REMAINS TO BE DONE. 

souls neglect to make use, as they ought, of that 
limitless power which is in their possession for restor- 
ing life to the dead. Ah — let us acknowledge it — 
there still remains much for us to do. We have to 
bring out in striking relief this doctrine which, till 
now, has been left too much in the background. 
We have to make clear and shining before all eyes 
that which many have seen but dimly. We have to 
recall to all Christians one of the grandest titles of 
their high dignity, of which the greater number seem 
not even to suspect the existence. We must bring 
them to fulfil, with far more merit and greater fruit, 
a duty which they now accomplish for the most part 
mechanically and without taking it in all its won- 
derful reach. 

Of course, Christians pray that all men may 
know and hallow the name of God. They ask for 
the coming of His kingdom, and the doing of His 
will here on earth as in heaven. But how few, as 
they utter these sublime words, understand all the 
meaning of them ! How much more powerful would 
prayers like these become in their mouth, if the 
truths we have recalled to them were more present to 
their mind ! How much more effectively would they 
help on the coming of the kingdom of God on earth, 
if they made part of an association ever recalling to 
them that, by each one of their actions, by every 
sigh of their heart, they have the power of hastening 
the time of His blessed coming. Such an associ- 



A RENEWAL, NOT AN INNOVATION. 179 

ation would furnish them easy means of giving to 
their most indifferent actions this apostolic virtue, 
and it would often keep before their mind motives 
able to stir up their zeal, along with the great need 
of the souls they are called to succor. Such is the 
end set before the Association of the Apostleship of 
Prayer. 

It is not an innovation which it brings into the 
Church ; it is a renewal which it is to stir up. Inno- 
vations are repugnant to the nature of the Church, 
which is a society divinely constituted and therefore 
essentially conservative. Renewal, on the other hand, 
is the constant end of all her efforts, because it is the 
great need of our nature, ever prone to glide down 
to lower levels. Like the Holy Ghost, Whose organ 
she is, the Church tries day by day to bring out in 
more vivid light the teachings she has received from 
the Divine Master ; for they are yet far from having 
received their full development. At the fitting time 
she brings all things to our mind, and teaches us to 
find in this heavenly food, which is as ancient as 
herself, a savor ever new and the satisfaction of our 
ever-recurring needs. 

The great need of our age — we shall soon have 
occasion to prove it — is unity. The movement 
started from Babel seems to have reached a final 
term, and to be about to give way to a contrary 
movement. The peoples have separated themselves 
from each other and have filled the earth \ and they 

9 



180 THE ANSWER TO GOD*S CALL. 

seem now to be under an influence, as it were, of the 
ebb of tide. All their tendencies are bringing them 
together, while science is furnishing them with 
means of communication hitherto unknown. Is not 
this the most fitting season for recalling to Christ- 
ians the dogma of the unity of men in Jesus Christ, 
and for stirring them up to put in practice that 
power which they possess of co-operating, by means 
of prayer, in the establishment of this unity, which 
is at once the salvation of the world and the chief 
end of the coming of the Son of God ? Is it not 
even along this way that the Spirit of God is urging 
those souls which are most docile to His action? 
For He is making them feel those impulses of pros- 
elytizing which perhaps had never shown themselves 
in like degree among simple laymen. Every day and 
at every point of the Church, we see new indications 
of this flame of zeal burning in truly Christian hearts. 
We have then to make answer to the clearest 
call of Providence, and to the aspirations of a count- 
less number of souls, and to the most pressing needs 
of the Church and of the world. To do this we 
form an association which, without imposing on its 
members any burdensome practices that may be 
incompatible with their other duties, furnishes them 
with the means of utilizing all their practices of 
piety and even their most indifferent actions for the 
salvation of their brethren, the triumph of the 
Church, and the regeneration of society. 



APPENDIX TO FIRST PART. 

On true devotion to the Sacred Heart, and its 
relation with the Apostleship of Prayer. 

[This first part of the work of Father Ramiere — on the 
nature of the Apostleship of Prayer — needs to be completed by 
his own words written nearly ten years later, " to solve certain 
difficulties more than once brought up by persons whose opinion 
was of great weight " with him. Messenger, i86j, I. 361.] 

Let us examine in turn the nature of the devo- 
tion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and that of the 
Apostleship of Prayer. Once we have clear ideas on 
this twofold subject, we shall easily see whether it is 
possible or right that these two devotions, which we 
are reproached with blending together, should be 
separated from each other. 



1. 

As to the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, 
we know the following, from the words of our Lord, 
from the witness borne by Blessed Margaret Mary, 
from the authority of the Church, and by the clearest 
reasoning : 

1. The object of this devotion is not alone the 
material Heart of our Saviour, but it is also and 
especially the unutterable love whereof this adorable 
Heart is the instrument ; 

181 



182 THE LOVE OF FRIENDSHIP. 

2. The end which Jesus Christ has in view, 
when asking for a particular devotion to His most 
loving Heart, is most of all to obtain a return of 
love from men, and then, under the impulse of such 
love, to stir us to reparation of the wrongs He is 
constantly called to endure. 

From these two principles follows a first con- 
sequence : the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, 
when well understood and properly put in practice, 
is simply an intercourse of close and generous friend- 
ship between this Divine Heart and the hearts of men. 

Friendship, St. Thomas tells us, is a love of 
good-will {benevolence), returned, and accompanied 
by a mutual communication of good things. 1 This 
definition could not be more completely realized than 
it is in the devotion to the Heart of Jesus. For its 
object is the most touching manifestation of the 
good-will of Jesus Christ toward men ; and its end 
is to stir up men to an unbounded devotedness to 
Jesus Christ. Wherever then this devotion is taken 
up and understood, it cannot fail to bear the fruit 
for which our Divine Saviour has so toiled and 
suffered. It will bring forth new friends to Jesus 
Christ, and thus satisfy the desire which He made 
known to His Apostles at the moment of fulfilling 
His last sacrifice for winning their love. / will not 
now call you servants. . . . But I have called 
you friends? 

1 /. 2., q. Ixv. a. J. &> q. xxii. a. i. 

2 St. John, xv. 15. 



ITS DISTINCTIVE MARKS. 183 

By thus laying down the distinctive character of 
this devotion, we exclude none of its particular 
points of view. We still keep for the practices in 
use among the faithful all their usefulness. Let them 
honor the representations of this Divine Heart, let 
them have recourse to It for every kind of grace, let 
them take It as their Model and strive to make repa- 
ration for the great wrongs It is ever enduring. All 
this goes perfectly well along with the essential end 
that has been pointed out. A Christian who is really 
the friend of Jesus Christ, will of himself perform all 
these practices of devotion, either in consequence of 
his love or in order to keep it alive. But the per- 
formance of all these practices together, unless his 
heart were kindled with the love of friendship for the 
Heart of Jesus, could never be considered as a well- 
understood devotion to the Sacred Heart. 

St. Thomas' definition tells us in what the love 
of friendship consists, distinguishing it from all other 
love by three marks : i . it is a mutual love, that is, 
returned ; 2. it is a love of good-will or benevolence ; 
3. it does not content itself with a barren affection, 
but is ever accompanied by a mutual communication 
of good things. 

The Christian who is desirous of giving Jesus 
Christ love for love already fulfils the first condition. 
But after this sincere desire, what is the prime duty 
of his friendship, what has he still to do ? 

According to St. Thomas, he has to love God 

9* 



184 THE MEANING OF DISINTERESTED LOVE. 

our Saviour with the love of benevolence — that is, he 
must not follow after Him solely with a mind to the 
advantages he hopes to receive from Him. Such a 
love (which theologians call the love of concupiscence) 
is quite different from the love of benevolence. 

What is the essential difference between the one 
love and the other ? 

St. Thomas again tells us, that by the love of 
benevolence we wish the good of the person loved, 
whereas by the love of concupiscence we refer his 
good to ourselves. The first, in a way, makes us to 
go forth from ourselves and devote ourselves to the 
happiness of another ; the second refers to self the 
affection had for others and the services bestowed on 
them. In one word, the first is disinterested, while 
the second is bound up with personal interest. 

But to be friends of Jesus Christ, must Christians 
sacrifice their true interests to the interests of their 
Divine Friend ? Is this the meaning of love being 
disinterested? Clearly not, since God makes it a 
duty for us to seek in our union with Him the only 
interests worthy of being prized: by us — those of our 
eternal happiness. We can not say it' too often — 
what the love of benevolence demands of us is not 
the sacrifice, but the blending of interests. 

One of the old-time pagans understood well this 
first condition of all true friendship, when he said r 
" To wish the same and reject the same — this makes 
up a solid friendship. " But our Divine Saviour has 



UNION WITH OUR LORD. 185 

shown us this far more perfectly in His discourse 
after the Last Supper, which we rightfully look upon 
as the testament of His love. He shows us the 
supreme type of friendship realized in the union 
existing between Himself and His Father, and to 
this He wishes we should draw ever nearer and nearer. 

O Father, . . . 1 have manifested Thy name 
to the men whom Thou hast given Me out of the world. 
And all My things are Thine, and Thine are Mine. 
And not for them only do 1 pray, but for them also 
who through their word shall believe in Me : that they 
all may be one, as Thou, Father, in Me, and I in 
Thee, that they also may be one in Us} 

The devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus should 
realize this last wish of His love. It should work 
between us and His Divine Heart a union so com- 
plete as to make us love what He loves and hate 
what He hates, desire what He desires and take to 
our heart all His interests, rejoicing in all His joys, 
being saddened by all the wounds given Him, unit- 
ing our prayers with His and working with all our 
strength to carry out His plans. It should fulfil the 
words of St. Paul : Let this mind be in you, which 
was also in Christ Jesus} Then, and then alone, 
will it attain its end, for then it will make of us true 
friends of our Divine Saviour. 

3 St. John, xvii. * Philippians, ii. 5. 



186 THE APOSTLESHIP, TRUE DEVOTION. 



II. 

In the devotion to the Sacred Heart, thus under- 
stood, we at once recognize the Apostleship of 
Prayer. For we do not see in the Apostleship of 
Prayer a special practice, but rather a spirit of devot- 
edness, impelling the Christian to take to his own 
heart the interests of the Heart of Jesus, to make all 
Its intentions his own, to pray and act and suffer in 
union with Its prayers and sacrifices. We have the 
right to say that the Apostleship of Prayer, thus 
understood, is one and the same thing with the devo- 
tion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is not only one 
of the principal practices of that devotion, but it is 
no exaggeration to say that it is its very essence. 
For the essence of this devotion is friendship between 
the Christian and Jesus Christ, and friendship essen- 
tially consists in the blending of interests and feel- 
ings between the hearts which it unites. 

This is still clearer if we look at friendship under 
its third condition — the mutual communication of 
good things — aad seek its fulfilment in the devotion 
to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Many waters cannot 
quench charity, neither can the floods drown it: 
if a man should give all the substance of his house for 
love, he shall despise it as nothing} 

5 Canticles, viii. 7. 



GIVING AND RECEIVING. 187 

The love which has mere creatures for its object 
at times calls forth the most generous sacrifices. 
What then shall not be done by the love doubly 
divine in its Source and in its Object — which the 
devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus has to awaken 
in our hearts ? It is St. Paul who has put the most 
beautiful phrases of this devotion on our lips. He 
expresses its effects, in its present relation, by a 
wondrous word which he says was our Lord's own : 
Remember the word of the Lord Jesus, how He said 
— It is a more blessed thing to give than to receive? 
In this word we find the key to the whole existence 
of our Saviour. It is the explanation of His Incar- 
nation, of His toils and sufferings, of His death 
upon the cross and of that mystic death which He 
undergoes daily on our altars. It is truly the word 
of the Heart of Jesus, Its rule and manner of action, 
and, if we may say so, Its whole system. But mani- 
festly, it should also be the rule and standard of all 
our own relations with the infinitely generous Heart of 
our Saviour. Are we truly devoted to Him ? Then 
assuredly we shall not refuse to receive the good 
things He has in store for us ; but we shall feel the 
need of giving Him something in our turn. We may 
never succeed in making real sacrifices to Him, for 
we can never hinder Him from giving us infinitely 
more than we have given Him. But even though 
we are sure beforehand of being conquered in the 

6 Acts, xx. 35. 



188 THE SACRED HEART AND THE APOSTLESHIP. 

generous strife, we will at least never lay down our 
arms. We shall give ever more and more, and 
ask of the Heart of Jesus, Which inspires us with 
this quenchless need, to furnish us daily with new 
means for its contentment. 

Such a means the devotion to the Sacred Heart 
does indeed furnish us, for it gives us the Apostle- 
ship of Prayer. It teaches us to unite our prayers 
with the prayers of this Divine Heart, to blend Its 
intentions in one with our own, to animate with 
these divine intentions all our actions and our suffer- 
ings. Thus it puts us in a condition to give to our 
Saviour what He prizes most in this world — to give 
Him souls. By His own words and through the 
mouth of His Apostles, He exhorts us to pray for the 
salvation of our brethren.* Hence He is our warrant 
for believing that by our prayers we may obtain for them 
graces they would not have received without us, and, 
also, that we may bring forth to the Blood of God, 
poured out for our souls, a fruit It would not have borne 
without us. But if Jesus Christ has given us this power, 
if with Him and by Him we may all become saviours 
of souls, then this power furnishes us a very easy 
and very effective means of becoming the benefactors 
and the creditors of this Saviour W T hose generosity 

* [Here Father Ramiere refers back to the entire Intro- 
duction of this book, showing that, in his own mind, these 
words we have ventured to add as an appendix, properly round 
off and complete this first part of his w T ork.] 



THE THIRD LAW OF FRIENDSHIP. 189 

is so infinite. We owe all things to Him ; but shall 
He not be in our debt if, by our zeal, by the fervor 
of our prayers, by the. generosity of our sacrifices, 
we bring into heaven souls which, without us, would 
have been forever lost?. 

Now, if such a power is in our keeping, are we 
allowed not to make use of it ? First of all, as a 
matter of course, we must make to our Divine Friend 
the gift of ourselves. But if, along with ourselves, 
we can give Him the souls of our brethren, can we 
refuse them to Him ? We see His Heart shedding 
for us and for these souls the last drop of Its blood ; 
and we know that by praying and suffering with Him 
we can prevent the loss of more than one soul. 
Is it possible for us not to grant the easy co-oper- 
ation which is the only cost of winning for Him so 
great glory ? And could one who would so act, flat- 
ter himself that he was the friend of his God, or 
persuade himself that he practised as he ought the 
devotion to His Divine Heart ? It is clear that this 
devotion will not fulfil the third law of friendship 
unless, in some way, it put in practice the x^postle- 
ship of Prayer. 

Thus we have entered into the inner meaning 
of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and 
studied its nature in the certain light of reason and 
of faith, seeking out its essential conditions. These 
conditions we see perfectly realized in the Apostle- 
ship of Prayer. We have the right to conclude that 



190 THE ONE DEVOTION. 

the Apostleship of Prayer, far from excluding any 
practice of devotion to the Sacred Heart, is itself in 
the chief place among all such practices — that there 
is a close tie so uniting it to the devotion as to make 
of the two in reality but one and the same devotion. 
Nothing would be easier than to confirm our 
conclusion by the words of the Saints who have best 
known and most ardently loved the Heart of Jesus. 
There is not one among them all whom His love has 
not led to pray fervently for obtaining the full 
triumph of this adorable Heart and the salvation of 
the souls redeemed with His blood. 



Second J^cirt* 

On the Advantages and Seasonableness of the 
Apostleship of Prayer. 

THE APOSTLESHIP OF PRAYER, 
A League of the Heart of Jesus. 

CHAPTER I.— Its Advantages to the Individual. 
« n._ « « « Society. 

" III. — " " " THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH. 

" IV. — " Seasonableness. 



k 'When may we look for the hour of God's 
great mercies — when shall we see, in souls and families 
and societies, that plentiful outpouring of His bless- 
ings of which devotion to the Heart of Jesus is the 
pledge ? 

" When there shall be fulfilled the first part of 
that prophecy, so full of comfort, which we may look 
to as the first of all the manifestations of the Sacred 
Heart : / will pour out upon the inhabitants of Jeru- 
salem the spirit of grace a?id of prayers y and they shall 
look upon Me Whom they have pierced. . In 

that day there shall be a Fountain open to the inhabit- 
ants of Jerusalem for the zu ashing of the sinner (Zach- 
arias, xii., xiii.). 

Father Ra?niere> Messenger y 1883, I, 12. 



192 



THE APOSTLESHIP OF PRAYER, 
Its Advantages and Its Seasonableness. 

In the first part of this work we have made 
known the nature of the Apostleship to which the 
Heart of Jesus invites all Christians. We have 
proved its reality and measured its power. We have 
examined the foundation on which God Himself has 
rested its unfailing efficacy ; we have disclosed the 
deep well-springs of its exhaustless bounty. For this 
it was necessary to enter into the innermost sanctuary 
of Catholic doctrine, and to bring in turn before our 
eyes the highest teachings of theology concerning 
grace and the supernatural life of the soul, associa- 
tion and its wonderful privileges, the co-operation of 
Christians with Jesus Christ and the double bond of 
union that makes them sharers in His divinity. 

It is not one of the least titles to esteem pos- 
sessed by our subject, that it should have this close 
connection with whatever is deepest and highest in 
revealed doctrine. Such teachings demand, on the 
part of the reader, a certain amount of effort; but 
this is amply compensated by the enjoyment he 
experiences at taking in, from a single point of view, 
the luminous heights of that science which is divinest 
and best fitted for mind and heart. 

i93 



194 THE LINE OF THOUGHT. 

This second part brings us to a new line of 
thought. We shall here estimate the advantages 
which the Apostleship of Prayer, when seriously 
taken up, offers to every Christian, to society, to the 
universal Church. To make ourselves sure that our 
estimate is exact, we must, of necessity, enumerate 
all those supernatural good things which go to make 
up the Christian's wealth, and we must study the 
conditions of the progress and well-being of societies. 
Then we shall bring ourselves face to face with the 
present needs of the Church, with her hopes and her 
fears, everywhere finding clear proof of the season- 
ableness of this work. 



CHAPTER I. 

ADVANTAGES OF THE APOSTLESHIP OF PRAYER: 
TO THE INDIVIDUAL. 

These advantages are of more than one kind. 
First of all, they are the merits gained for us by the 
Apostleship, either by multiplying our good works or 
by giving to each one of them a higher value. 
Secondly, they are the satisfactions which we are thus 
enabled to offer to God's justice for our faults, and 
consequently the power thus given us of freeing our- 
selves from the penalties of the life to come. Thirdly, 
there is the power of pleading (impetration), that is 
to say, a power thus communicated to us over the 
Heart of God for obtaining whatever we ask in our 
behalf. Finally, there is the strength and peace thus 
poured out in souls, by freeing them from the dis- 
quiet that troubles and weakens them. A few brief 
developments will be enough to bring us face to face 
with the reality of these different advantages, and to 
make us rightly estimate their value. 



i95 



ANALYSIS. I. The Apostles hip of Prayer, a source of 
merits. Merit described — a spiritual capital. Conditions of 
meritorious act : state of grace — supernatural motive. Nature 
of the intention required. Merit only lost by mortal sin — 
regained in full by penance. Causes of increase of merit : per- 
fection of motive, example in Apostleship of Prayer — the two- 
fold love of our neighbor — charity and the Apostleship; fervor 
of will, intensified. Thus the Apostleship increases number, 
pure intention, and fervor of meritorious acts. 

II. The Apostleship of Prayer, a source of satisfaction for 
faults. Means of satisfying temporal penalty for sins. Threefold 

increase in the satisfying power of supernatural actions : sorrow — 
charity — good done to neighbor; exemplified in the Apostleship 
— nature of penance — zeal, the flame of charity — alms to souls, 
the pardon of offences. 

III. The Apostleship of Prayer, a means of obtaining 
from God whatever we ask. Prayer a universal instrument. The 

conditions of friendship : mutual love — sharing of good things. 
God our Friend — miracles granted to the Saints. The Apostle- 
ship fulfils conditions of friendship 

IV. The Apostleship of Prayer, a source of peace and 
comfort. The good of peace. Self seeking, the cause of 
spiritual disorder — examples even in piety. God alone, and not 
His gifts, even of grace, satisfies the soul. The Apostleship 
removes self-seeking — a way of peace. 



196 



DESCRIPTION OF MERIT. 19? 

I. 

The Apostleship of Prayer, a plentiful source of merits. 

Merits are the riches — as it were, the spiritual 
capital — of the Christian. We may apply to them 
with entire exactness the definition which economists 
give of capital, namely, it is the excess of production 
over consumption, made use of for still further pro- 
duction. In fact, the capital of a merchant increases 
by all that part of his gain which he denies himself 
from spending and which he makes use of for yet 
further gains. Just so the Christian, whose every 
work is productive of divine glory, denies himself the 
enjoyment of this glory while he is on earth, and 
makes use of his gains only to become capable of 
gaining yet more. In the same way gold and silver, 
stowed away in coffers, bring no present enjoyment, 
and thev have all their value from the good things 
for which it is possible to exchange them. So too 
the merits which the Christian wins by his good 
works seem useless h re below ; their worth will be 
understood only when they shall have been exchanged 
for as many degrees of everlasting happiness. 

Merit, therefore, is a right to the happiness, to 
the very glory of God — a title to a share, more or 
less abunda t, in the heavenly inheritance. Now* 
this inheritance is nothing less than the fulness of the 
divine life of Jesus Christ, which is communicated to 



198 MERIT FROM EACH SUPERNATURAL ACT. 

us on this earth by sanctifying grace. Hence it fol- 
lows that each of the actions done by the Christian 
under the influence of such grace, gives him a right 
to the possession of the glory of his Divine Head, 
and is consequently a meritorious act. 

Not alone then do acts of perfect charity and 
great sacrifices — the effects of heroic virtue — possess 
this wondrous fruitfulness. It belongs also to every 
act of the Christian in a state of grace, when he acts 
under the impulse of a supernatural motive. It is 
every work, even the most indifferent, that is united 
by its intention with the works of Jesus .Christ. It is 
every suffering, every action, every word, every 
thought of the day which is offered up to God, from 
the morning light, by a fervent act not afterward 
retracted. Yes, everyone of such thoughts and words 
and actions and sufferings, apart from those which 
self-love may have polluted with its poison, must 
bring forth without fail a fruit infinitely more 
precious than any created advantage that can be 
imagined. For it is a fruit divine and eternal, 
a degree of God's own bliss. Yet more, even those 
works wherein, with more or less deliberation, the 
influence of self-love should be mingled are not for 
that reason altogether devoid of merit, unless this 
poison so infects them at the root and so vitiates all 
•their substance that it shuts out all praiseworthy 
intention from the will. 

What is still more wonderful and consoling is 



LOST MERIT REGAINED. 199 

that merit once gained can no longer be lost, except 
by mortal sin. Negligence and lukewarmness and 
vt nial faults, even the most deliberate, cannot deprive 
the soul of the lea^t degree of merit that has been 
gain >d by previous good works. This kind of capital, 
unless alt.gether thrown avay, can ot be lessened, 
a d even must always go on increasing. For it is 
impossible that the most tepid soul, so long as it 
remains in a sta e of grace, should not from time to 
time perform some supernatural act. 

Last of all, and it is the height of these wonders, 
mortal sin do s not so far destroy merit as to take 
away its power of springing up aga n, so soon as the 
sinner comes back to Clod by pe. ance. For, by a 
mira le of God's goodness wh'ch is not known 
enough nor admired enough by Christians, that 
penance wh'ch sd entirely reduces a sin to noth ng 
that no following sin cjn make it to live again, has 
also the power of making alive once again all tie 
met its which a grievous fault had struck with death. 
In this way the greatest criminal who returns to God 
by an act of sincere contrition, regains, and that at 
once, the merits of all the good works performed b\ 
him and of all the Sacram: nts received by him 
during the course of his life ; and these are increas d 
by the merit of the act of contrition he has just made 

This is what the most accredited Doctors of the 
Church teach on the subject of merit. 

Thus every supernatural act done by a Christian 

No. 2—1* 



200 INCREASE OF MERIT. 

in the state of grace is meritorious. But such acts 
are far from all meriting in the same degree. There 
may be among them any number of differences. St. 
Aloysius Gonzaga, at the age of twenty-three years, 
had acquired an immense sum of merits; and St. 
Mary Magdalen de Pazzi saw him, after his death, 
shining with such splendor among the other Saints, 
that she would never have believed, she says, there 
had been so much glory in heaven. How had he 
been able in so short a time to amass so great a 
treasure ? Is there in the spiritual life some secret of 
leaping rapidly into fortune, and of gathering from 
the least good works the very greatest revenues ? Yes, 
without any doubt such a secret exists, and the 
Apostleship of Prayer furnishes us with one of its 
easiest and most profitable applications. 

Two causes help to increase the merit of a work 
— the perfection of the motive and the fervor of the 
will. 

Thus, a work done because of the advantage 
we hoped to draw from it for ourselves is much less 
meritorious than a work, in itself perhaps much less 
painful, but done singly in view of God's goodness. 
For, as we have said, sanctifying grace — or, what 
comes to the same thing, charity — is the source of 
merit. Our works are so much the more meritorious 
as they have a more direct relation with this queen 
of virtues. It is true that charity influences all the 
supernatural actions and thoughts of a soul in the 



THE PERFECT MOTIVE. 201 

state of grace. But this influence has a great pre- 
ponderance in those acts which have no other motive 
than the special motive of this virtue, that is, God's 
goodness. Moreover, it is clear that our acts must 
be so much the more meritorious as they are diviner 
and more like to those of God Himself and of Jesus 
Christ, our Pattern and our Model. Now, the life of 
God is the love of His own infinite goodness. God 
is charity ; and he that abideth in charity abideth in 
God, and God in him} Jesus Christ, too, lived for 
the love of God's glory. This love was His food, 
His strength, His rest, His consolation. And since 
this is so, it is also clear there is scarcely a more 
powerful means to increase speedily our merits than 
the Apostleship of Prayer seriously put in practice. 

For, in reality, what does this work do for us? 
It places before our eyes the very motive which is 
the most perfect of all, the motive of God's glory — 
the sole object of His sovereign will and of all the 
aspirations of Jesus Christ. It impels us to forget 
self, that we may occupy ourselves with this great 
interest only, may empltfy ourselves with our whole 
strength in its advancement, and may consecrate to 
it all our influence and all the fervor of our desires. 
It tends to animate all our actions, all our prayers, 
each beating of our heart and each breath of our 
bosom — absolutely our whole life — with this sublime 
intention. Thenceforward, even should it add to our 

1 1. St. John, iv. 16. 



202 THE TWO KINDS OF MOTIVES. 

ordinary works not one action, not one sacrifice, not 
one prayer the more, the Apostleship of Prayer would 
still singularly increase the merit of each of our days, 
yes, of each moment of our existence. 

As this point is of primary importance in the 
spiritual life, we do not fear to linger a little upon it. 

In the performance of our supernatural works, 
we may seek after three kinds of benefits; God's 
glory, our own spiritual advantage, and the profit of 
our neighbor. Yet these three aims do not constitute 
three different motives. In the supernatural order 
there are only two kinds of motives, and consequently 
only two kinds of love, which theology nam es the 
love of concupiscence and the love of benevolence. 
The first makes us seek before all else our own happi- 
ness ; and, as we know we can find this happin ss 
only in God, we therefore determine to uni e our- 
selves with Him. The second makes us seek God's 
glory before all else. We uni:e ourselves with Him 
because He is infinitely lovable, and we brng ba k 
everything to Him, even the happiness which He 
promises us. 

Thus the love of concupiscence is the love f 
ourselves in G<>d and of God because of ourselv< s 
It is supernatural self-love. The love of benevole ce 
on the contrary, is the love of God for Himself a d 
of ourselves because of Him. It is pure charity, the 
love of God pre-eminently. 

Such are the two principles of all our tendencies, 



THE TWOFOLD LOVE OF OUR NEIGHBOR. 203 

and in some sort the two roots of all supernatural 
love. The love of our fellows may spring from either 
one or the other of these two roots. To love those 
like us purely for themselves, at least with an effica- 
cious love, is impossible. There can be only one of 
two things, either we shall love them in God, Who is 
the common Father of us all, or else we shall love 
ourselves in them. If it is in God that we love them, 
we shall love all without excep ion ; for they are all 
created to His image, all are destined to possess Him 
alcn^ with ourselves. In Him, and in Him alone, 
all men, no matter how far removed they may be 
from us by th ir birth, their habits, or their interests, 
become our neighbors. But if, on the contrary, we 
love ourselves in them, we shall love only those who 
love us and whose sce'ety brings us some advantage. 
This s cond kind of 1 ve of our fellows m;y also be 
supernatural, be ause the advantages we look for fr >m 
h ir s c.cty may bel ng to the supernatural order. 
Y t it shar s in a'l t' e imperfe tions of the love of 
* oncupi: c nee, and th ; acts of which it is the main- 
spring have only a merit of far lower degree. On 
t e contrary, the love of all men in God in no wise 
differs f om the love of God Hin self. The love of 
God is charity considered in its centre. The love of 
one's n ghbor in God is this sam? charity consid ered 
i its boundh ss exj ansion. T! e motive is the same, 
and the merit is cons quently equal. To separate 
them is impossible. How, indeed, can we love God 



204 CHARITY AND SOULS. 

without loving all that He loves ? If we recognize 
in Him our Father, it is impossible that we should 
not recognize in all His children our brethren, and 
that we should not extend even to them the affection 
we have for Him. If we are fully devoted to His 
interests we cannot be indifferent to the destinies of 
souls whose salvation cannot be separated from God's 
glory. On the contrary, our zeal for them will be in 
exact proportion to our devotedness to Him. 

Divine charity is possessed of a twofold move- 
ment that makes up its life. Like the human heart, 
which is its most perfect counterpart in the material 
order, it has a movement of contraction and a move- 
ment of dilatation. It beats without ceasing from 
God to souls and from souls to God. It unites itself 
more closely to God's goodness, which is its centre, 
only that it may give itself up more entirely to the 
works of zeal that furnish it with its food. In default 
of exterior labors, it will find in its own interior — in 
prayer — an exercise equally efficacious. But it is as 
impossible for it to forget souls as to forget God. 

Now the Apostleship of Prayer constantly places 
before the eyes of Christians the boundless needs of 
souls and stirs them to devote themselves to the 
sanctifying of souls. Clearly, therefore, it is calcu- 
lated to develop charity in Christians, and conse- 
quently to give to all their works that superexcellent 
merit which goes along with the perfect exercise of 
this virtue. 



THE APOSTLESHIP AND CHARITY. 205 

It must not be thought that by thus stretching 
out our aims we lessen the effective desire of our own 
sanctification, or enfeeble the love which we owe to 
those nearest to us. Far from loving ourselves less 
when we love ourselves for the sake of God, on the 
contrary, we love ourselves far better and much more. 
Charity is stifled so long as restraint is put upon it, 
and it gains in intensity whatever it gains in reach. 
Who will ever desire happiness more ardently than 
did the Heart of Jesus ? This desire is essential to 
every reasonable will, and in Him it was measured 
only by the boundless energy of His faculties. What 
heart was ever more tender, more grateful, more 
devoted than His? And yet in Him these affections 
which were so real and this desire of happiness 
which was so ardent were subordinated to a love yet 
more powerful, to the love of God's goodness, for 
Whose sake He loved all men. But this subordination 
was far from depriving those other sentiments of any 
part of their vitality. On the contrary, it gave them 
a strength equal to their purity, because it enkindled 
them with all the flames which the Heart of Jesus was 
ever drawing forth from the furnace of God's love. 

The Apostleship of Prayer will produce in our 
own hearts a like effect. It will give to all our affec- 
tions — and consequently to all our works, which are 
the outward manifestations of our inmost affections — 
strength, purity, and the merit of divine charity. It 
will do yet more. It will give our charity a price- 



206 THE FERVOR OF THE WILL. 

less warrant, and will preserve it from an illusion 
that is only too likely to assail it. When we look 
upon God in Himself alon j , we are much disposed 
to consider Him selfishly and to seek, almost uncon- 
sciously, in that charity which we believe most pure 
the sweetness and the advantages it brings along with 
it. The Apostleship of Prayer makes such an illusion 
next to impossible. It obliges us to go forth from 
ourselves, to love God outside of ourselves. It is 
unceasingly occupied in overturning the barriers that 
would shut in narrow bounds our charity, and would 
lessen the merit of our works by contaminating the 
purity of our intentions. 

Moreover, it increases merit in another way; for 
the purity of our intention is not the only thing by 
which this is measured. Besides the perfection of the 
motive, we must take into account the fervor of the 
will. For, of two acts quite similar in all else, the 
one may be performed with an intenseness of love, 
with an effort of the will, far greater than the other; 
and reason agrees with theology in saying that the 
former will be by far the more meritorious. But our 
reason also tells us that the will will be so much the 
more stirred to put forth all its energy, as it pur- 
su s a nobler and more momentous aim. When does 
the soldier feel himself animated by the most irre- 
pressible courage ? When does that noble intoxica- 
tion of spirit seize hold upon him, which makes him 
blind to danger, insensible to wounds, and capable of 



THE INCREASE OF GOOD WORKS. 207 

superhuman effort ? It is when he is but a hand's 
breadth away from the rampart, and there is no 
alternative left him but certain death or glorious 
victory. Now, such a stake may be compared with 
that which the Apostleship of Prayer is ever placing 
before us. At each moment it shows us the souls of 
our brethren, members of Jesus Christ, who are being 
lost while we might save them. What Christian, 
seeing one of his brethren falling into the abyss, 
would not make an effort to save him ? It is this 
sight which the Apostleship of Prayer is constantly 
placing before our eyes. Should it not enkindle in 
us courage and fervor and generosity ? Should it not 
make each of our works the work of a fervent will, 
since it may help to the salvation of our brethren ? 
What merit, consequently, will not our works acquire 
from it ? 

Let us add to this that, once we are pierced 
through and through with such lofty thoughts, we 
shall not be content with the works and prayers that 
we might otherwise have performed. We shall have 
an activity like that which is put forth in great 
dangers. When a terrific flood or a vast conflagra- 
tion breaks out, the man who before was slowest and 
most undecided becomes prompt and determined. 
Then he lives more in a single hour than in a whole 
day of ordinary circumstance. This explains the 
speed with which the Saints have lived, and the 
power they have had of fulfilling a long time in the 



208 THE APOSTLESHIP AND MERIT. 

short space of their earthly existence. 2 We shall 
imitate them as soon as we understand that each of 
those moments, which we now let slip from us with so 
pitiable a want of care, might be used for the saving 
of a soul, for gaining for some dying one the final 
grace of contrition, for procuring to God some further 
degree of glory. 

Thus our supernatural acts being multiplied will 
be done with purer intention ad greater fervor, 
and the Apostleship of Prayer will have laid open 
to us three abundant sources of merit. Who can 
calculate the proportion in which these three united 
causes are able to increase our wealth ? Not the mind 
of man nor the spirit of an angel, but the intelligence 
of God alone ; for this increase has no limit and its 
measure is beyond our valuing. 

2 Wisdom, iv. 13. 



PENANCE AND SATISFACTION. 209 



II. 



The Apostleship of Prayer, a plentiful source of satisfaction for 

our faults. 

Supernatural works have not only the virtue of 
meriting future blessings, they have also the virtue of 
satisfying for past faults. 

We know indeed that penance, by remitting in 
the sinner's favor the eternal penalty due to his 
mortal sins, often leaves him liable to a temporal 
penalty, which he must undergo either in this life by 
willing expiation, or in purgatory by an expiation 
beyond all measure more rigorous. To this debt, 
which is the outcome of deadly sins whose guilt has 
been blotted out, is to be added that which we con- 
tract for venial faults. And of these — in spite of our 
b st purposes, alas ! — we become guilty every day. 
Who can tell how far this debt would go on increas- 
ing, did not God's goodness furnish us with some 
means of extinguishing it? 

Happily, this means has not been denied us. 
Every painful act willingly undertaken, every invol- 
untary suffering freely offered up to God, and even, 
in a general way, every supernatural action united 
with the satisfaction of Jesus Christ by a soul in the 
state of grace in order to obtain the remission of 
faults, unfailingly works this effect, to some degree. 



210 THREEFOLD SATISFACTION. 

But such remission has not always the same 
completeness. Three chief causes may increase the 
satisfying power of our works ; the sorrow which goes 
along with them, the charity that inspires them, 
and the consoling results which follow in our neigh- 
bors' behalf. In the sorrow which we inflict upon 
ourselves, or take upon ourselves freely, God's justice 
finds a compensation for the wrong we have done 
Him. In the love with which our satisfaction is 
animated, God's mercy finds a reason for giving up 
His own rights. Finally, in the good we do to our 
brethren God, our common Father, sees, as it were, 
a debt which He has contracted toward us, which 
obliges Him to remit to us our own debts. This is 
the reason why, in the Holy Scriptures, the complete 
remission of our sins is sometimes attributed to pen- 
ance, sometimes to charity, and then again to alms- 
giving and mercy shown to our neighbor. On one 
side, the Holy Ghost tells us that, to bend God's 
justice, we must do penance in sackcloth and ashes : 
Be converted to Me with all your heart, in fasting, 
in weeping and in mourning. On the other hand, 
He assures us — Charity cover eth a multitude of sins. 
Again, Alms deliver eth from death, and the same is 
that which purgeth away sifts. Redeem thou thy sins 
with alms, and thy iniquities with worhs of mercy to 
the poor. And finally, Forgive, if you have aught 
against any man, that your Father also, Who is in 



THE MERIT OF PENANCE. 211 

heaven, may forgive your sins. Forgive, and you 
shall be forgiven . 3 

It is easy to understand how, in the Apostleship 
of Prayer, these three causes that increase the satisfy- 
ing merit of our works, act together and are raised to 
their highest power. 

First of all, the exercise of such an apostleship 
is an act of penance. What is it that, according to 
theologians, constitutes the inmost essence and entire 
merit of the virtue of penance ? It is the sorrow felt 
by the soul when it sees the rights of God unworthily 
trampled upon, and the movement by which it is 
borne to avenge them. In this sense Jesus Christ, 
Who had in Him no shadow of sin, could yet do acts 
of penance and show Himself the perfect model of 
this virtue, as well as of all others. Exterior pen- 
ances draw all their value from this inner hatred of 
sin, to which belongs in the highest degree the power 
of satisfying God. Now the Apostleship of Prayer, 
well put in practice, is a continued effort toward the 
destruction of sin. We have seen a shining example 
of this in the Prophet Daniel devoured with grief at 
the sight of the sins of his people and the iniquities 
that were overflowing the earth. It is impossible to 
be closely united with the Heart of Jesus without 
offering oneself along with Him in a continual sacri- 
fice for the crimes of men. Clearly, to enter into 

3 Joel, ii. 12; I. St. Peter, iv. 8; Tobias, xii. 9; Daniel, 
iv. 24; St. Mark, xi. 25; St. Luke, vi. 37. 



212 CHARITY AND ALMSGIVING. 

this spirit is also very effectively to expiate one's own 
faults. 

Charity has the second title to this power of 
expiation. It cannot be wanting in our Apostleship, 
for the reason that this is simply charity under its 
divinest form and in its exercise the purest and 
strongest and completest. And if charity, according 
to the comparison of St. John Chrysostom, has the 
power of consuming sins as utterly as a devouring 
flame eats away the trees of the forest, what must not 
be said of the zeal which is the flame of this divine 
fire, and of the Apostleship of Prayer, which is zeal 
systematized and made stronger by association ? 

Finally, the Apostleship of Prayer is the most 
useful alms we can give to our neighbor. Our Divine 
Master has said, Not in bread alone doth man live y 
but in every word that proceedeth from the ?nouth of 
God. He has also given us to understand that the 
good spirit, that is, divine grace, is the true bread 
which the Heavenly Father is ready to give to our 
souls, and which He never refuses to our prayers. 
If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts ta 
your children, how much more will your Father in 
heaven give the good spirit to them that ask Him ? K 
When our pious insistence has gained for our brethren 
this food for their souls, we have done more for the 
remission of our own sins than if we had nourished 
their bodies. 

*St. Matthew, iv. 4; St. Luke, xi. II, 13. 



THE APOSTLESHIP AND SATISFACTION. 213 

We should notice, too, that prayer in behalf of 
our neighbor's soul is also the best means of pardon- 
ing him those offences of which he may be guilty 
against ourselves, and consequently of placing upon 
God, in virtue of His solemn promises, the obligation 
of pardoning our own offences. Often the heart is 
so ulcerated that it is with great pain we can bring 
it to pardon truly and absolutely. Let such a heart 
pray for these from whom it believes an injury has 
been received. Let it ask for them from God, in 
spite of all the repugnance of feeling, heaven's happi- 
ness ard every kind of grace. Soon, beneath the 
sweet influence of prayer, the heat of anger will be 
cooled and the heart will find itself not only ready 
to pardon, but to love for God's sake those whom 
before it could not keep from hating. 

We have reason then to say that the Apostleship 
of Prayer is not only a plentiful source of merit, but 
also a source equally abundant of satisfaction for our 
sins. We pass on to its further advantages. 



214 PRAYER INFALLIBLE. 



III. 

The Apostleship of Prayer accredits us before God, and is a 
sovereign means of obtaining from God whatever we ask of 
Him. 

The riches of the Christian are not alone made 
tip of the merits which he gains and the payment of 
the debt which he has contracted by his faults toward 
God's justice. They consist also in the power given 
him of drawing on God's treasury, and taking from 
it by prayer whatever God Himself can take there- 
from by His power. 

We have explained to what degree the power 
of prayer is infallible, when there is need of 
obtaining for our brethren spiritual graces. But its 
power is not limited to this single class of favors ; it 
reaches out to all things. In the hands of God's 
friends it is a universal instrument, serving them in 
every use whatever, offering comfort in temporal 
needs as well as in their spiritual necessities. It puts 
all nature at their bidding. It is a kind of heavenly 
charm, against which there is no resisting. Saints 
are seen to work miracles, as if in play. You would 
say that the Almighty had made Himself their servant, 
and that to act He waited only for the bidding of 
their prayer, as with Josue, the Lord obeying the 
voice of a man* 

To be convinced of this, and to understand how 

5 Josue, x. 14. 



THE LOVE OF FRIENDSHIP. 215 

far the Apostleship of Prayer is calculated to give us 
this boundless credit before God, it is enough to 
recall to our minds that, according to Catholic doc- 
trine, the charity which unites God to man is a 
true friendship. 6 It has always had this character. 
For, in every time, even under the Old Law, man 
was destined to enjoy the happiness of God and to 
share in all His blessings. But under the New Law, 
God has become in some way our equal and by 
taking upon Himself our nature has communicated 
to us His own. Thus the conditions of our inter- 
course with Him have become immeasurably more 
suited to the conditions of true friendship. He Him- 
self declared, on the eve of the day when by His 
death He was to complete that sharing of all His 
good things with us which He had already made, 
that henceforward He wished to behold in us only 
friends. / will not now call you servants, but I have 
called you friends. 7 

What then is the nature of friendship ? Is it a 
love of pure benevolence ? Yes, without doubt, for 
its name alone puts aside all inclination of self- 
interest, every idea of making use of a friend for our 
own purposes as we would make use of an animal or 
a field. And yet, who will venture to say that 
friendship repels, or that it does not seek after that 

6 St. Thomas, 2. 2. qu, xvi. art. 1. [See also Appendix 
to Part I (this edition), for summary by Father Ramiere ] 
'St. John, xv. 15. 
No. 2 — 2 



216 THE LAWS OF FRIENDSHIP, 

satisfaction which springs from the close intercourse 
and honorable good offices of which it is the source ? 
The truth is that friendship, well understood, excludes 
even the possibility of such a doubt. As St. Dionysius 
the Areopagite has said — it is a living bond which 
out of two hearts makes but one. It sets up between 
them such a union and identity that each of the two 
loves itself in the other, and the other in itself. 
There is no longer then any opposition, in true 
friendship, between the love of good-will or benevo- 
lence and the love of concupiscence or desire. There 
is no more a preference for, one interest over another 
than there is in the love which we bear ourselves. 
When the mother sacrifices her personal satisfaction 
in behalf of her child, she does not believe that she 
has made a sacrifice ; the real sacrifice for her would 
be to act otherwise. So it is in all true friendship. 
The friend hesitates not to sacrifice himself for his 
friend, because good things and evil being held in 
common by them, neither of the two considers that 
lost to himself which is gained for the other. 

Such are the laws of friendship. St. Thomas 
reduces them to two : the mutual love which of two 
hearts makes but one, and the sharing in each other's 
good things which puts in the possession of each 
whatever is held by both. 

God knew these laws when it pleased Him to 
choose wretched and sinful men for His friends. 
How could He help knowing them? Their only 



MIRACLES DUE TO PRAYER. 217 

source is in Himself, they are merely the expression 
of the ineffable relations which unite together the 
Three Divine Persons. He knew them, and He was 
the first to subject Himself to them. He has loved 
us, He has given over to us His own good things, 
and He is ready to make this communication yet 
completer, in the measure in which, on our side, 
we better observe the conditions of this contract. 
These conditions the Saints have observed with all 
the faithfulness of which human weakness is capable. 
They have forgotten themselves, to live only in God 
and for God. What ought to be verified in their 
favor, what actually has taken place? God, their 
Friend, has not been willing to see Himself con- 
quered in generosity. To make recognition of their 
sacrifices, He has not feared to multiply miracles. 

These miracles, due to the prayers of the Saints, 
are the necessary and the natural outcome of the first 
and highest of all the laws that rule the moral world. 
If we look at them from this standpoint, we have the 
right to refuse to call them miracles. The real 
miracle would be if things were otherwise, if a soul 
utterly devoted to God did not obtain from Him 
whatever it asked. When a stone is thrown upward 
from a man's hand there is no miracle, although such 
a movement is contrary to the nature of the stone left 
to itself. In this case the laws of its nature are con- 
trolled by the laws of a higher nature, and the only 
miracle would be that the latter should not produce 



218 THE APOSTLESHIP AND GOD'S FRIENDSHIP. 

their effect. Apply this principle to the laws of 
friendship, under whose sway God has promised that 
He will refuse nothing to the man who refuses nothing 
to Him. We shall then understand on how solid a 
foundation rests the almightiness of the friend of 
God. 

It is therefore of the highest moment to ask by 
what means we can go forth from ourselves, and fulfil 
on our part the great condition of- divine friendship. 

This means is ready to our hand. The easiest 
and the surest of all means is the serious and constant 
practice of the Apostleship of Prayer. By practising 
this we in some way forget our own interests, whether 
they are of time or even if they are spiritual. In 
our preoccupations the first place is secured for God's 
glory. We pray, we labor, we suffer for souls that 
are strangers and even unknown to us, solely because 
our Lord loves them and they are to glorify Him for 
all eternity. This is indeed to confound our own 
interests with those of His Heart. This is indeed to 
act toward Him as faithful spouses to each other, as 
a true friend to his friend. This is to fulfil the duty 
which He Himself declared to St. Teresa, after He 
had loaded her with ineffable favors. " Hencefor- 
ward, as My true spouse, you will make My honor 
your only care." We cannot doubt that this unin- 
terrupted practice, along with self-renouncement, and 
even more than the renouncement which prepares the 
way for it, is the great channel of the generosity of 



PEACE, THE PRESENT GOOD. 219 

heaven, the secret of possessing ourselves of the 
power of the Almighty, and the true art of working 
miracles. 

IV. 

The Apostleship of Prayer, a plentiful source of peace and 
interior consolation. 

To be almighty is a great thing for man, naturally 
so weak, and the art of working miracles is very 
precious ; but there is something yet more precious 
and to be desired — interior peace. 

Peace is the supreme good of our present life. 
All men seek after it, whether they know it or not. 
Peace is to our heart's desires and the soul's facul- 
ties what the harmony of its strings is to the harp, or 
the balance of all its separate parts to a vast edifice, 
or the smooth running of all its wheels to some 
powerful and complicated machinery. It is what the 
harmony of their movements is to the celestial bodies. 
But while outside of us order and peace everywhere 
reign, how rare is this accord of all our desires, how 
difficult to obtain is this harmony of our faculties ! 
What disorder, for the most part, prevails in the 
interior workings of our soul ! The wheels in their 
running are in opposition to each other. Certain 
life-springs are so pressed down that all their play is 
lost, or else so worn and tense that they become 
unstrung. Why is this opposition, this strife and 
wrenching asunder, this tearing apart of a substance 
which in itself is spiritual and simple like God ? 



220 SPIRITUAL DISORDER. 

We might say that the soul is punished in this 
manner for her unfaithfulness to her Author, and for 
refusing to obey the glorious law He has given her 
to unite herself with Him and to become like unto 
Him in all things. But in that case souls that faith- 
fully keep the law of God ought to taste the sweet- 
ness of peace. And yet, how great is the agitation 
and disquiet even of souls sincerely Christian ! How 
few outwardly show forth the true marks of interior 
peace ! On the contrary, the great number are but 
causes of trouble and uneasiness both for themselves 
and for others. Where are the peace-makers, the 
true children of God, Whose peace shall spread out 
as it were a river, an overflowing torrent of blessings 
to all around ? 8 

They are seldom to be met with, yet we must 
not be surprised. Among so many who aspire to the 
honor of God's friendship, there are so few who 
practically and generously accept its conditions, who 
are willing to forget self to think only of the interests 
of their Heavenly Friend. It is much, they think, 
to renounce guilty satisfactions, to divorce themselves 
from flesh and blood, to consecrate themselves 
entirely to piety and good works. But when they 
go aside from the turmoil of the world they carry 
with them their self-love and their self-seeking, which 
perhaps they fancied they had left behind. Their 
selfishness is not dead, it has only changed its state ; 

8 St. Matthew, v. 9; Isaias, lxvi. 12. 



SELF-SEEKING IN PIETY. 221 

instead of losing anything, it has gained. It will no 
longer be given for its nourishment that gross food 
which humbled it without appeasing its hunger. It 
will now be nourished with a more dainty satisfaction, 
with the fragrance of purer praises, with the esteem 
and friendship of nobler souls, with the most subtle 
feeling of its own excellence, and with spiritual con- 
solations. No one can fail to see that such self-seek- 
ing in piety, if not a grievous fault, is nevertheless 
contrary to that utter blending of our own interests 
with the interests of God, which alone warrants our 
expecting the liberalities of this faithful Friend. 

Let us not mistake ; so long as this is the man- 
ner of our action there is no peace to be hoped for. 
We shall still be a prey to disquiet and trouble, and 
that in proportion to the dominion which our heart 
gives to self-love. 

Then, truly, nothing can receive its full satis- 
faction in us, not nature and not grace. 

Not nature, because our nature thirsts after 
certainty and duration and the Infinite. Now this 
sweet nourishment of our self-love, even though it be 
spiritual, can never be infinite or certain or durable. 
True, it is no longer the mire of sensual pleasures, it 
is no longer the tarnishing flame of earthly honors 
and riches ; but it is still that which is created, and 
consequently it is uncertainty, agitation, emptiness 
— essential attributes of every creature and of every 
movement impelling toward creatures. It is in vain 



222 man's content in god alone. 

then that we seek in these joys of piety the full satis- 
faction of the natural desires of the heart. 

Still less have we a right to expect from them 
the satisfaction of the supernatural needs produced 
in us by divine grace. If the human heart, even 
when given over to itself, can find its full content 
only in the possession of God, what shall the Chris- 
tian heart do, that is to say, the heart of man united 
with the Heart of God and become the dwelling- 
place of that Divine Spirit Which is the substantial 
Love of God ? How can the heart that has become 
divine be satisfied with any created nourishment, 
however heavenly it may seem? What else than 
God can appease those unspeakable groanings which 
the Holy Ghost causes to burst forth from the souls 
over whom It has mastery ? How can this Spirit of 
God, Which has been given us only to lead us to 
perfect union with God, that is to say, to make us 
go forth from ourselves and clothe ourselves with 
God's life — how can It suffer us still to rest in self 
and endeavor to taste here below those joys and 
that glory which shall be ours only in heaven ? Can 
It allow us to make an evil and selfish use of the 
fruits of our Saviour's death, to waste and consume 
like children those goods which have been given us 
only for purchasing God and enriching us with His 
own bliss? No, so long as we thus mistake God's 
wishes and our own true interests, so long as we do 
not look upon piety as a continual and perfect sacri- 



THE UNFAITHFUL SOUL PUNISHED. 223 

fice, grace will give us no repose. It has created in 
us divine faculties, which demand a divine food. 
So long as we strive to satisfy them otherwise than 
with God they will inflict upon us all the torments 
of hunger. 

With pious souls that seek after other things than 
God, the more adorned they are with high virtues 
and heavenly gifts, the more cruel will be their suffer- 
ing. For the jealous care of God Who loves them 
increases with His love for them ; and the demands 
of the Holy Spirit are so much the stricter as Its 
bounty is greater. Each new degree of grace is a 
new impelling of the soul toward God. It is an 
additional spring in a mechanism already powerful. 
The soul cannot show herself unfaithful to it without 
her resistance causing a disorder like that which is 
produced in the human body when a limb is wrenched 
from its place, or in the heavenly bodies when a 
planet wanders from its orbit. 

From all these considerations it results that the 
way of peace for us is that which leads us forth from 
ourselves, lifting us not only from flesh and blood, 
but above all personal self-seeking, above all selfish 
satisfaction and all, even the subtlest, self-love, and 
above all covetousness, even that which is most 
spiritual. 

Does the Apostleship of Prayer open such a way 
before us ? Yes, for it opens to our sight the bound- 
less horizon which embraces every interest of God 

NO. 2—2* 



224 THE APOSTLESHIP's REMEDY. 

and souls, and it says to us : All this is yours, because 
all this is the inheritance of Jesus Christ, your eldest 
Brother. For all thi?igs are yours, and you are 
Chrisf s ; and CJu-ist is God's. 9 The great cause at 
stake on the field of battle is your cause, for the 
reason that it is the cause of God your Father and of 
the Church your Mother. This limitless realm is the 
sphere of your activity. In all its vastness there is 
not a single point which you cannot reach by prayer. 
There at will you can give play to all that is lofty in 
your desires and unbounded in your ambitions. 
There all your faculties may find their full exercise. 
This is the only atmosphere fit for the Christian's 
heart ; everywhere else he would be stifled. To the 
souls on whom grace has bestowed its divine wings, 
every limited horizon can be but a prison. They are 
impelled by the breath of God, rest is as death to 
them, and constraint of their action is but agony. 

It is thus the Apostleship of Prayer brings us 
to look upon our position in regard to God and all 
creation. It shows us in the narrowness of our heart 
and the lowness of our views the true cause of all 
our interior troubles. 

O soul, do you now understand why you are so 
often sad, and why after brief moments of sweet con- 
solation there follow soon disquiet and unrest ? Why 
art thou sad, O my soul? And why dost thou trouble 
me ? But when we at last understand where wisdom 

9 1. Corinthians, iii. 22-3. 



THE WAY OF PEACE. 225 

and virtue and intelligence are found, where there is 
length of life and plenteous food, where there is the 
light of the eyes and the peace of the heart, then let 
us not hesitate to enter upon this way, to go forth 
from self and to fill ourselves with all the fulness of 
God. Learn where is wisdom, where is strength, 
where is understanding : that thou may est know also 
where is length of days, where is the light of the eyes 
and peace . . . That you may be filled unto all 
the fulness of God. 10 

10 Psalm xli. 6; Baruch, iii. 14; Ephesians, iii. 19. 



CHAPTER II. 

ADVANTAGES OF THE APOSTLESHIP OF PRAYER ; 
TO SOCIETY. 

The Apostleship of Prayer could never right the 
balance of souls and calm all their inner unrest, with- 
out also furnishing the surest of all remedies to the 
unrest and the disorder of society. 

These social advantages which we have proclaimed 
may spring from two sources : from the spirit of zeal, 
which is the prime mover of the Apostleship, and 
from the spirit of prayer, which is the instrument of 
its influence. If we consider this with the slightest 
attention we shall understand its importance to 
human society in general, and also to all the different 
societies in particular. 

ANALYSIS. I. Advantages to society fro?n diffusion of 
spirit of zeal. Social theories and evils. Three bases of society, 
in law of charity — twofold relation of superiors and inferiors, 
mutual love. Present disorder — Christian remedy, application 
by Apostleship — true views of temporal and eternal. Example 
from St. Paul— progress and peace in the Church. 

II. Advantages to society fro?n diffusion of spirit of prayer. 
Work of prayer in societies — progress in science, art, industry. 
Prayer, the remedy against materialism, social evils, trouble — 
heals self-sufficiency, the obstacle to God's protection. 



226 



THE BASES OF SOCIETY AND CHARITY. 227 



I. 

The advantages which result to society from the diffusion of 
the spirit of zeal. 

There was never a time when men were more taken 
up with social theories than in our day. Yet there 
was never a time when society was so sick, when its 
organization suffered so grievous injury, when its 
foundations the most essential were more seriously 
shaken. 

All society rests on three bases, alike necessary 
to its stability and its well-being. These are the 
paternal devotedness of superiors toward inferiors, 
the hearty subordination of inferiors to their supe- 
riors, and the mutual love of the different members 
for each other. 

These three conditions are summed up in the 
great law of charity. This divine law, when applied 
to the three kinds of relations that constitute every 
society, makes superiors act as true fathers toward 
their inferiors and causes them to see in their 
authority an obligation to greater devotedness. The 
inferiors, instead of cursing their subordination, 
receive with love and gratitude the direction given 
them by their superiors. Finally, all the members 
joyfully submit to those sacrifices which insure to 
society the incalculable good of concord and union. 
It is not necessary to prove that, in every order of 



228 THE DISORDER IN SOCIETY. 

society, this harmony which is so much to be desired 
has been gravely troubled. Selfishness more and 
more tends ta substitute itself in place of charity, 
in the relations of the members of society among 
themselves, as well as in the mutual relations of 
superiors and inferiors. 

We need not speak of civil society, whose revo- 
lutions are causing the earth beneath our feet to 
tremble. In the family the father's authority is 
given up of itself, and fades away ever more and 
more in face of the children's insubordination ; 
while in the heart of brothers the voice of blood and 
nature no longer has strength to stem hostile 
interests. 

This is the case in the first of all societies, in 
that which serves as the foundation of all others and 
which has for its fountain-head the very instincts of 
nature. What then must be the case in those socie- 
ties whose members are naturally only too prone to 
look upon each other as strangers, if not as enemies? 

The evil then is a real one, and it is also clear 
that it is a serious one. What is far from being so 
clear to us is the remedy which must heal and give 
back health to the social body, no matter how deadly 
its wounds may seem. 

Yet for Christians this remedy cannot be far to 
seek. They will find it in that Divine Name which 
brings with itself the healing of the peoples as well as 
the salvation of individuals— in the name of Jesus. 



THE CHRISTIAN REMEDY. 229 

Neither is there salvation in any other. For there is 
no other name under heaven given to men whereby we 
must be saved} They will find this remedy in the 
blood which flowed upon the Cross from the Saviour's 
veins and which remains in the hands of the Church, 
to be applied for the divine healing of all the evils of 
men. They will find it, last of all, in His Heart, 
Which remains present in the midst of us as an ever 
open fountain of love and life. 

Such, beyond all doubt, is the sovereign remedy 
prepared and offered by God's hand to society in its 
hour of danger. And we here declare that one of the 
happiest applications to be made of this remedy, is 
that which comes from the Apostleship of Prayer. 

In truth, what is needed ? Simply to open the 
way to divine charity, that it may enter into hearts 
with its influence and impel them onward to the high 
and sublime end which God has set before them. 
But men will never suffer themselves to be borne on 
toward this lofty end, unless they begin by fixing 
their attention upon it. They will not be touched 
with the great sentiments of charity, so long as their 
thoughts remain imprisoned in the narrow range of 
personal interest. Selfishness will not come to an 
end, so long as, in the practice of virtue itself, every- 
thing is brought back to self-interest. Would you 
take from selfishness all its power, and break the 
spell with which it fascinates poor human hearts? 

1 Acts, iv. 12. 



230 THE TRUE RELATIONS OF MEN. 

Do you wish society to find once more its true 
balance, so that superiors may place all their glory in 
making themselves the servants of those beneath 
them and so that inferiors may think themselves 
happy in obeying, while all shall seek, as for some 
gain, an occasion of making sacrifices for the happi- 
ness of others? Then you must put back into their 
place all the wheels and workings of the social 
mechanism. It will be an easy thing, once the 
interior of souls has found again its order and its 
harmony. Show the different members of temporal 
societies their true relationship with the great society, 
the heavenly family, of which God Himself is the 
Father. Make them understand that to each one of 
them has been entrusted a share in the eternal 
interests of this great family, that their recompense 
in a better life shall be measured, not by the rank 
they have held here below, but by their faithfulness 
and devotedness. Make them look upon this earth 
as a single point in the boundless home of God. 
O Israel, how great is the house of God, and how vast is 
the place of His possession? The time they shall pass 
here, whether holding authority in their hands or 
subject to it, whether rich or poor, is as a moment 
lost in the infinite series of ages. Force them no 
longer to look upon themselves in self, but in God 
Who calls on them to exchange their nothingness for 
His perfection. When this has been done they will 
3 Baruch, iii. 24. 



THE APOSTLESHIP AS A GUIDE. 231 

no longer be tempted to shut themselves up in their 
own nothingness. They will cease to be dazzled by 
the splendor of their riches or their power, and to be 
cast down by their state of dependence and priva- 
tion. Superiors will exercise their authority with 
humility, and inferiors will nobly practise obedience. 
All will understand the worth of sacrifice, and he 
will esteem himself the happiest who has found the 
most meritorious occasion of serving God in his 
brethren. 

This is what the Apostleship of Prayer does. It 
suffers not that we should bound our looks and 
thoughts for a single moment to the narrow limits of 
those earthly societies of which we form a part. It is 
like the guide who leads the traveller to a high 
mountain, whence his eye takes in the whole bound- 
less horizon and where the inequalities of the plain 
fade utterly from sight. Thus the Apostleship of 
Prayer places us at a standpoint so high and wide in 
its command that it becomes impossible for us to 
take any account of our position of inferiority or 
superiority here below. It shows us heaven as the 
everlasting kingdom of which all of us alike, by a 
common title, are the presumptive heirs. Life is the 
time of our minority, of our education. Material 
creatures are our servants. Our superiors and the 
ministers of the Church and even the Angels are 
charitable aids appointed by God to help us in fulfill- 
ing our destiny. Jesus Christ is the only Master we 



232 THE REMEDY OF ST. PAUL. 

are bound to obey, and the only Judge to Whom all 
of us are bound some day to give account of our 
actions. Last of all, the glory of our Divine Saviour 
and of God His Father is the supreme interest 
entrusted to us, it is the common end which all of u& 
alike can attain, though by different ways, and in the 
pursuit of it a greater or less fidelity is to be the 
measure of our happiness. 

This is the divine remedy which the Church of 
Jesus Christ brings forward against selfishness, and 
by this she anticipates the dissensions which tear 
asunder the social body and arm its members the one 
against the other. It is the only means used by 
St. Paul to heal the divisions which had risen up in 
the Church of Corinth. For, whereas there is among 
you envying and contention, are you not carnal, walk- 
ing according to man ? 

For while one saith, I indeed am of Paul, and 
another, I am of Apollo, are you not men ? What then 
is Apollo, and what is Paul? 

The ministers of Him Whom you have believed r 
and to everyone as the Lord hath given. 

I have planted, Apollo watered : but God gave 
the increase. 

Therefore neither he that planteth is anything, nor 
he that water eth ; but God that give th the increase. 

Now he that planteth and he that zuatereth are 
one. And every man shall receive his own reward 
according to his own labor. 



THE SACRIFICE OF SELFISHNESS. 23S 

For we are God 1 s coadjutors : you are God's 
husbandry, you are God 1 s building. . . . Let no 
?nan therefore glory in men. 

For all things are yours, whether it be Paul, or 
Apollo, or Cephas, or the tuorld, or life, or death, or 
things present, or things to co?ne : for all are yours : 

And you are Christ 1 s, and Christ is God's} 

This sublime picture should be ever before the 
eye of the Christian, that he may learn to go forth 
from himself and to put God's views in the place 
of the low views of his own self-love. Through such 
lofty sentiments the Apostleship of Prayer w T ill reward 
the efforts of those who sacrifice their selfishness in 
supernatural things, to think c^ly of God's interests. 
If they are in command, they will see in all who obey 
them the heirs of God's kingdom, whose glories they 
shall share according as they make its acquisition 
easy to others. If they are under obedience, they 
will see in their superiors the living images of their 
infinitely good Father, Who is preparing for them 
an everlasting glory in heaven. And in their equals 
they will see fellow-men, all whose gains will only 
increase their own reward and all whose losses will 
lessen in equal measure their own treasures. 

The Christian who rises to the level of these 
sentiments and knows how to dwell there, will never 
use authority without devotedness nor obey without 
love. It is impossible he should not be willing to 

3 I. Corinthians, iii. 



234 THE TRUE MEANS OF PROGRESS. 

give men the most painful services. A society wherein 
such views should be always held would enjoy a 
changeless peace, a strength beyond all power to 
vanquish, and the joys of consummate well-being. 
A family, any community, a city, a state, that should 
be firmly settled on this foundation, would have 
reached the ideal of perfection, and would find in 
the union of its members, in the ardor of devoted- 
ness that would animate them, the true fountain of 
all progress. 

Why do not men who speak so much of progress 
open their eyes ? They have taken upon themselves 
the high mission of bettering the condition of their 
fellows and of reforming all society. They should 
no longer seek in fantastic realms for the paradise 
which they dream of bringing to this earth. They 
would find it in the bosom of the Catholic Church, 
where for eighteen hundred years it has been open to 
all societies, in the measure in which they follow the 
sublime lights of faith and the divine inspirations of 
charity. 

Whence come the union, the peace and the hap- 
piness, that reign in religious communities in the 
midst of the strictest poverty and privations of every 
kind ? Assuredly, it is the work of the power which 
charity exercises over souls, of the self-denial with 
which it fills them where their personal interests are 
concerned, of the burning zeal which it enkindles 
in them for God's glory and their brothers' good. 



THE APOSTLESHIP, A POWERFUL AID. 235 

Give free way to the Apostleship of Prayer to awaken 
feelings so peculiarly its own — in families and in states 
and in every human association — and, by destroy- 
ing selfishness which is their bane, it will give them 
new life and will become a powerful aid in develop- 
ing every element of their prosperity. 



236 PRAYER AND SOCIAL PROGRESS. 



II. 

The advantages which result to society from the diffusion of 
the spirit of prayer. 

This blessed influence of the Apostleship over 
society will be so much the more efficacious as the 
spirit of prayer — a principle of divine fruitfulness— is 
more widely spread abroad. 

Prayer, we have said, is a supernatural breathing. 
It draws into our soul the air of heaven, the breath 
of God's charity, the life of grace. Our conclusion 
has been that without prayer the soul can only be 
stifled and perish. It is no less certain that without 
prayer societies can neither live nor develop them- 
selves. Each bond that unites men one with another 
owes to prayer its strength and its elasticity. For it 
can obtain its full effect only by bringing man 
nearer to God, and this power can come to it only 
from prayer. It is man's love for himself which 
ought to lift him unceasingly toward God under 
penalty of lowering him even beneath his natural 
dignity. So too the relations of man with his fellow- 
men cannot be of real use to him except inasmuch 
as they render easy his upward tendency toward God. 
Not only is prayer, in society, the fountain-head of 
moral blessings, of true charity, of generous benevo- 
lence, of solid devotedness, of holy undertakings and 
good examples ; it also gives life to those elements 



PRAYER, SCIENCE, ART. 237 

of social perfection which, at first blush, seem pro- 
fanest. 

Prayer secures the progress of science ; for 
it alone can keep alive in the understanding that 
burning thirst for truth which makes it overcome 
every obstacle, and that distrust of self which avoids 
every hidden rock. It alone maintains the balance 
between the docility which welcomes the lessons of 
experience and the hardihood that strikes out along 
ways yet unexplored. The wise man who does not 
pray will, almost without fail, fall a victim to the 
intoxication of presumptuous pride or to the weakness 
of discouragement, and on either side he will go 
farther and farther from the truth. It has been said 
justly — The seeking after truth is nothing else than a 
natural prayer. But how much greater would be the 
warrant of success if such prayer became supernatural, 
uniting the understanding with the Incarnate Word 
Who is the fountain of all light, and with God's 
Spirit, the source of all wisdom ! 

Prayer aids to the progress of the arts. The 
arts are a continual aspiration toward infinite beauty, 
an effort unceasingly renewed to express by brush or 
pen or chisel that ideal perfection which dwells in 
the Divine Intelligence, and some reflection of which 
the human intelligence can see in creatures. Who 
does not, see the likeness of this upward striving and 
aspiration with prayer? The only difference between 
these two things is this — the artist's aspiring is with- 



238 PRAYER AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS. 

out any certain foundation, has no well defined pro- 
cedure, no settled aim ; whereas Christian prayer, to 
lift itself up to God, rests on the infallible founda- 
tion, and to reach Him takes a way that cannot fail 
of leading to the end, while it beholds God's good- 
ness under that form and feature with which He has 
been pleased to clothe Himself that He might become 
visible to our gaze. Prayer then is the only certain 
way to the ideal, it is by way of eminence the pro- 
cedure of true art. At the same time it is the 
heavenly fragrance which alone can prevent art from 
becoming material and corrupt. 

Again, it is prayer alone that can prevent 
industry from lowering souls to the level of the 
material results they follow after. Whatever high- 
minded souls may be among us agree in pointing out 
this danger. They deplore that society should be 
brought down to barter away the priceless goods of 
the moral order in exchange for the progress which 
industry is realizing in the physical order. Is it not, 
in very truth, fit subject of lamentation that man 
can increase his power over matter only by losing his 
empire over himself, and that his thoughts grow 
narrow in proportion as his wonderful inventions 
reach further out ? Others may seek means, more or 
less ingenious, of destroying this antagonism between 
spirit and matter. The easy and practical means 
proposed by God Himself is prayer. When the love 
of prayer holds sway in society, industry, without 



PRAYER, THE REMEDY OF SOCIAL EVILS. 239 

losing anything of its forward impulse, will be freed 
from all its dangers. 

Of itself, industry is no evil. There is no abuse 
in thus daily increasing our sway over matter by force 
of genius ; for God has given man rule over it by 
creating him. But the crime would be to subject 
man to the tyranny of matter by a shameful abdica- 
tion of his rights, by lowering himself to its level 
instead of lifting it up with himself. When this 
crime shall have become the crime of all society, 
prayer alone will be able to deliver us from it, by 
giving us an energetic impulsion toward God and 
moral good, an impulse so much the more necessary 
as we are the more forcibly pushed onward to earthly 
enjoyment. 

It is thus prayer w r ill render fruitful those ele- 
ments of progress which God has deposited in the 
bosom of human society. It brings forth, in the 
heart of each individual man, the virtues indispens- 
able to his perfection ; and then it alone heals and 
uplifts and even make? divine the piofanest relations 
between him and his fellow-men. 

Prayer is also the remedy, universal and effica- 
cious, for the evils, of society. 

Take a family, Christian enough in a way, but a 
prey to the most cruel trials. The material straits it 
suffers are the least of its sorrows. Floods of bitter- 
ness, as from so many poisoned life -springs, over- 
whelm it — the division of interests, opposing views, 
No. 2 — -i 



240 GOD AND SELF-SUFFICIENCY. 

moody antipathies and aversions of character ; and 
these day by day bring into its midst wranglings far 
more painful than every privation. What if the 
members of such a family begin praying with fervor ? 
Parents and children and brethren, brought down io 
despair, at last feel the need of God's help. They 
draw near to Him by the Sacraments and by daily 
supplication. Soon concord takes the place of dis- 
sension, well-being succeeds to want, a river of peace 
renders fruitful the land once so desolate. 

Listen to the words of the Holy Ghost : Except 
the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build 
it. Except the Lord keep the city, he watcheth in vain 
that keepeth it. In the destiny of societies as in that 
of individuals, God wishes, and indeed ought, to 
show Himself as God. By His nature He is infinitely 
generous, and He is pleased to give His protection 
to the heads of families as to the heads of states, 
whenever, by the humility of their prayers, they 
make sure the rights of His glory. But He cannot, 
without being wanting to Himself, grant them His 
protection, so long as they set themselves up in self- 
sufficiency and become their own gods. The Lord 
has said it — / will not give My glory to any one J 
How many bitter disappointments, how many house- 
hold griefs, how many revolutions and bloody dis- 
asters have been occasioned by such pride, and might 
have been prevented by prayer ! 

* Psalm cxxvi. I ; Isaias, xlii. 8, xlviii. II. 



CHAPTER III. 

ADVANTAGES OF THE APOSTLESHIP OF PRAYER : 
TO THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH. 

Analysis. End of the Apostleship, to destroy individual- 
ism and make minds Catholic. 

I. Usefulness to preservation and well-being of the Church. 
The Church, Christ's mystical body — the continuation of the 
Incarnation. Her outer and inner life — grace, the condition of 
her preservation — dependence on prayer and sacrifice of just 
souls. 

II. Usefulness rests on Communion of Saints. Com- 
munion of members in living body — Saints in glory — Christians 
in grace. The Apostleship, a collecting system of prayers — a 
communion in actual graces. 

III. Usefulness for defence and increase of the Church. 
The Church's mission to souls, to dead and already living — by 
apostles. The Apostleship and missions. 

IV. Usefulness for bringing forth and developing apos- 
tolic vocations. Zeal from prayer — the appeal of souls. 

V. Usefulness for drawing closer the bonds uniting all the 
me?nbers of the Church. Charity from union of prayers — the 
Apostleship, an aid to the Church's spirit — gift of creature to 
Creator. 

VI. Conclusion — the Apostleship a pledge of predestina- 
tion. The warrant of final perseverance — merit of spiritual 
works of mercy — Our Lord in sinners. Thoughts of Saints and 
holy souls — of Doctors — of the just of the Old Law. 



241 



Advantages that should result to the whole 
Church from the Apostleship of Prayer. 

It is not alone various particular societies that 
are to feel the happy influence of that spirit of zeal 
and of those lofty views of faith, which are spread by 
the Apostleship of Prayer. Manifestly, the larger 
part of these advantages must come back to the 
Church, that is, to the supernatural society of souls, 
to that divine city whereof these lofty views are the 
light and this spirit of zeal the life. 

There is nothing more opposed to the interests 
of the Church, nothing narrower and consequently 
less Catholic , in the primitive sense of the word, than 
the spirit of individualism which the Apostleship of 
Prayer is calculated to destroy. A great number of 
souls owe to the Church all their moral well-being, 
all their consolation, their hopes, their life itself. 
Yet how deplorably little they think of her, or 
occupy their minds with what concerns her, or put 
themselves out of the way because of her dangers, or 
suffer because of her griefs! Is there not in this 
indifference, with which so great a number of Catho- 
lics look upon the interests of their Mother, a lament- 
able disorder? 

342 



THE END OF THE APOSTLESHIP. 243 

This consideration of itself might well make us 
feel the usefulness of a work which has for its only end 
to heal this disorder, and to spread among Christians, 
along with the love of the Church, an understanding 
of her interests and a knowledge of the happenings, 
good or ill, which concern her. But we shall feel this 
better still if we reflect with some little attention on 
the nature of this holy society of souls, and on the 
conditions of its well-being. 



244 THE CHURCH, CHRIST' S MYSTICAL BODY. 

I. 

Usefulness of the Apostleship of Prayer to the preservation 
and well-being of the Church. 

We have already spoken of the Church. In her 
we have admired the pre-eminent association, the 
most perfect image of the ineffable society of the 
Three Divine Persons, or rather the extension of this 
divine society of light and love to Angels and to 
men, through the mediation of Jesus Christ — true 
Son of God by His divine nature and true Brother 
of men by His human nature. 

Doubtless we are not now inclined to see a 
simple figure of speech — high-sounding words with- 
out sense — in St. Paul's definition of the Church 
when he names it the mystical body of Jesus Christ} 
We are acquainted with the conditions of the exist- 
ence of this body, of which holy baptism has made 
us members. We know that this body — at once 
divine and human, visible and invisible, of heaven 
and of earth — is destined to unite earth to heaven, 
bringing into one single whole the material and the 
spiritual creation, making men to live of the very life 
of God. It has for its head the Incarnate Word, for 
its soul His Divine Spirit, for its chief spokesmen 
and means of action the Apostles and their succes- 
sors in the priesthood, for its members all the faith- 
ful, for its duration eternity. 

1 Ephesians, v. 23. 



THE CONTINUATION OF THE INCARNATION. 245 

Again, the Church is often called by St. Paul, 2 
from yet another comparison, that structure whose 
materials God makes ready on earth, only to trans- 
port them some day to heaven. Jesus Christ is the 
first foundation ; the Apostles are the secondary 
basis ) doctors and bishops and priests are its pillars ; 
all the faithful are its stones; grace is the cement 
binding them together ; charity and the other virtues 
are its priceless ornaments ; the glory of eternity is 
the crown of its magnificence. 

Last of all, the Saviour Himself, in His discourse 
after the Last Supper, describes the Church for us 
under the figure of a fruitful vine that stretches out 
its branches into all the world. Its finest shoots are 
already flowering in the everlasting springtime of 
heaven, but others are still exposed to the storms of 
earth. He Himself is the vine, and all men should 
be the branches. All are called to unite themselves 
with this divine stem, and in it to bring forth the 
fruits of life. 3 

In all these touching comparisons it is the same 
idea which is set before us from different points of 
view. They clearly aim at making us look upon the 
Church as the continuation of the Incarnation, as the 
successive communication, to the different genera- 
tions of men, of that holiness and blessedness of 
which the Son of God possesses the fulness by right 
of birth. In a word, they put the Church before us 

2 Ephesians, iv. n-2. 3 St. John, xv. 



246 OUTER AND INNER LIFE OF THE CHURCH. 

as the complement of Jesus Christ. For it is His body, 
and the fulness of Him Who is filed all in all} 

A few moments' delving in this sublime idea is 
enough for understanding the advantages which the 
Church cannot fail to receive from the Apostleship 
of Prayer. 

This holy society of souls, as we have just pointed 
out, is at once visible and invisible. 

It is visible in its mortal members, in its earthly 
existence, in its outward action. It is propagated 
by the speech of men ; by sensible signs it confers 
the grace which Jesus Christ has entrusted to its care ; 
by sensible rites too it offers its sacrifice. Under 
this point of view, as under all others, it is the per- 
fect image of its Divine Spouse. He too made use 
of outer and sensible means to work His miracles 
and spread abroad His grace and teach His doctrine. 

But this outward life of Jesus Christ was the 
least part of His real life. The works of His hands 
and the words of His lips drew their power from the 
Holy Soul in which they had their source and from 
the Divinity Which penetrated them with Its almighty 
power. So the exterior life of the Church is but a 
faint reflection of the light that shines upon it and 
the heat of the Holy Spirit that enlivens it. All the 
glory of the King 1 s daughter is within} Her mem- 
bers draw their strength and their fruitfulness from 
their union with God's Spirit. They can have life 

4 Ephesians, i. 23. 5 Psalm xliv. 14. 



THE PRESERVATION OF THE CHURCH. 247 

only on condition of being ever in communication 
with their Divine Head and receiving from Him 
unceasingly that supernatural grace which is as the 
life-blood of this great body. 

Such is the nature of the Church. Hence her 
preservation cannot depend solely on the outward 
action of a few of her members. Even those whose 
existence is most hidden, whose influence is exercised 
only by spiritual means — by prayer and sacrifice — 
must help as effectively as the others toward her sup- 
port and well-being. 

If we consider the human body, it is not the 
feet and hands, the eyes and mouth alone that labor 
for its preservation. Every organ does its share in 
the common work, without any interruption. It is 
difficult, of course, to explain the action of the 
different organs on each other ; yet who would deny 
it ? The most interior organs, those whose mechan- 
ism and play are quite shut out from our examination, 
have the strongest action and the most important 
and necessary functions to perform. Even when 
their action is manifested exteriorly, the moving 
principle is hidden. By secret and mysterious ways, 
by means and springs that are lost to all our search- 
ing, this action is communicated from one member 
to another and spread throughout the body. What 
could the arms do, if the heart for a single moment 
ceased sending to them through the arteries the blood 
necessary for keeping them alive ? What could the 
No. 2 — 3* 



248 JUST SOULS AND THE CHURCH. 

eyes see, if their communication with the brain 
through the nerves were broken off? 

This is the case with a body whose whole exist- 
ence is animal. How then can we find it strange in 
a moral body, in a society that is entirely spiritual, 
whose life and action and end are supernatural, that 
the different members should act upon each other, 
often without any outward seeming of it? We 
udmit that God's grace makes the life of the Church. 
Therefore we cannot doubt that the just soul has so 
much the more power for increasing this life as it is 
more pleasing to God, and as its virtues give it 
greater credit with Him. We can easily understand 
what advantage would result from the intercession of 
such souls to the pastors and ministers of the Church 
in the exercise of their stern and dangerous duties. 

Bossuet unfolds this truth to us, not only with 
the mastery of his genius, but with the authority, far 
more imposing, of Catholic tradition. 

The explanation given by this great man is 
found in his discourse on the Unity of the Church. 
"Often, says an early Father, light comes to those 
who teach from the prayers of those who listen. 
Whatever good is done in the Church, even by the 
pastors, says St. Augustine, is done from the secret 
impulse given by the innocent doves that are scat- 
tered over the whole earth. Simple souls, souls 
hidden from the eyes of men, most of all hidden 
from your own eyes, yet knowing God and known of 



PRAYERS FOR THE CHURCH. 249 

Him, where are you that I may direct my words to 
you ? But no, there is no need of my knowing you. 
The God Who knows you and Who dwells in you, 
can bring my words, which are His own, into your 
hearts. Lowly souls, innocent souls, whom God's 
grace has turned from all the vanities of the world, 
it is your prayers that I ask. In acknowledgment of 
the gifts of God, of which the seal is placed on you, 
pray without ceasing for His Church.' ' 



250 THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 



II. 

The usefulness of the Apostleship of Prayer rests on the doctrine 
of the Communion of Saints. 

There is no further need of insisting on this 
power, possessed by all the members of the Church, of 
co-operating in the measure of their degree of grace 
and holiness to the preservation of the whole body 
and the spiritual growth of all its other members. 
This truth is a part of our faith. It is the Com- 
munion of Saints, in which we daily profess our faith 
when we recite the Creed. 

This doctrine, so consoling yet so little known, 
is a consequence of the fundamental dogma which we 
have already laid down — the real and very close 
union of all Christians with Jesus Christ. How 
indeed could they all be closely united with their 
Divine Head, unless they also were in communion 
with each other? 

In a living body each of the members cannot be 
in relation with the head, unless at the same time it 
is in relation with all the other members. Thus they 
exercise, each upon the other, an influence that is 
mutual and constant. The eye directs the hands and 
the feet, while the hands and the feet are set in motion 
for the defence and preservation of the eye. If the 
least part is wounded, the whole body suffers from it. 
On the contrary, the well-being of each of the mem- 



THE COMMUNICATION OF GLORY. 251 

bers reacts favorably on the well-being of the others. 
Those which are hidden far within the body and 
whose action is utterly beyond our sight, are far from 
being shut out from this communion of good and ill ; 
on the contrary, they have the largest share in it. 
If they suffer, their pains are much more keenly felt 
by the other organs, just as their health contributes 
far more powerfully to the health of the whole body. 

There is something similar to this in the great 
body of the Church. We express it in these words : 
/ believe the Communion of Saints. 

These words in reality have for their meaning 
that all the members of this divine body — whether 
in the full possession in glory of the perfection 
of holiness, or possessing its substance by habitual 
grace, or again having naught of it but its first begin- 
ning in faith and submission to the Church — are 
united by a true community of interests. They form 
among themselves, in the strictest sense of the word, 
a society in losses and gains, in such a manner that 
every increase of life and holiness acquired by one 
of them flows back on all the others, just as every 
loss incurred by the least among them is felt by the 
greatest. 

This is clear of the Saints in heaven. The hap- 
piness of each one among them has, of course, for 
its essential and primary object the Divine Essence 
alone ; and consequently, under this point of view, 
it is independent of the happiness of the others. 



252 THE COMMUNICATION OF GRACE. 

Yet it is beyond question that, over and above this 
substance of their bliss, they draw enjoyment of 
infinite sweetness from the society of those other 
spirits which, along with them, contemplate the Divine 
Essence — from the sight of their beauty, from the 
love uniting them together, and from the communi- 
cation they make each other of every joy. Theology 
calls this the accidental blessedness of the elect. 
Each chosen soul, therefore, which enters heaven 
increases for all the dwellers in that place of delight 
the sum of their happiness ; and this increase is in 
the measure of its own blessedness. 

What has been said with regard to the communi- 
cation of glory among the members of Jesus Christ, 
who are already come to the splendors of their true 
country, is quite as real with regard to grace among 
the members of that same body who are still jour- 
neying in the shadows of exile. 

Grace, as we have said, is but the beginning of 
glory. It is the divine life in its growth and in its 
struggles, as glory is that same life in its fulness and 
its rest. But in these two states this life is communi- 
cated equally through the body of Jesus Christ, from 
the Head to the members and from each of the mem- 
bers to all the others. Should one member die the 
death of sin, the strength and beauty of the entire 
body would suffer injury, as the health of a robust 
man is injured when a single arm is paralyzed. On 
the other hand, when a dead member comes again 



PRAYER, THE NEED OF THE CHURCH. 253 

to life, or even, like an Augustine or an Ignatius, 
acquires a more than usual strength and an heroic 
sanctity, then the whole body is reborn with him 
and feels itself filled with a new vigor. 

This strict dependence of the members of the 
Church, one upon the other, would be sufficient of 
itself alone to prove the lawfulness of an institution 
whose end should be to revive and increase the zeal 
of all for the common interest, to make the strong 
understand the need they have of help and the weak 
the power they possess of strengthening their breth- 
ren. It would establish, as it were, a world-wide 
collecting system, in which all — rich and poor alike 
— should draw by prayer from the exhaustless wealth 
of God's goodness the riches with which they are to 
increase the common treasure. 

The usefulness of such an institution will appear 
all the better from an attentive consideration of the 
needs of the Church, and of the exact nature of the 
Communion of Saints which we have just set forth 
in its general aspect. 

The great need of the Church is prayer. By 
prayer this divine body is lifted above the atmosphere 
of earth, where it works out its time of trial, to breathe 
its native air. Prayer is the channel through which 
the graces that nourish its life are poured out. The 
more prayers there are in the Church the stronger 
she is ; the lessening of prayer causes her to languish ; 
and she would die, were it possible, on the day when 
her members ceased to pray. 



254 VITAL ORGANS OF PRAYER. 

Prayer is a vital function, and it is sweet and 
easy in itself. Yet everything here below tends to 
make us careless in its exercise. The ordinary Christ- 
ian living in the world is turned away from it by 
his business. The religious in the solitude of his 
retreat too often meets a hindrance to its due per- 
formance in the activity of his own mind. The 
priest, in the midst of the fatigues and distractions 
of his ministry, finds hardly time for it. Woe to us, 
woe to the whole Church, if we yield to these hin- 
drances ! As for the Church, we have said it, the 
maintenance of prayer in her bosom is a question of 
life and death. The highest of all services, then, 
that can be rendered her is to spread this spirit, to 
impress upon all the prime importance of this duty, 
to promote the formation of those organs of prayer 
of which we have already spoken, that is to say, of 
souls that give up their whole life to do what so great 
a number of Christians utterly forget. In this way 
they readjust the balance in danger of being upset 
by a fatal forget fulness. 

Here too it may be allowed us to speak out 
against the incredible blindness of certain Christians 
who permit themselves to call in doubt the usefulness 
of those religious institutions which are devoted 
solely to prayer. — What is the use, they say, of 
houses whose inhabitants pass their whole life in 
the idleness of prayer ? Has not God placed us on 
earth to labor, did He not impose en us the precept 



THE COMMON POSSESSION OF CHRISTIANS. 255 

of labor after the fall of Adam ? It must therefore 
be an excess to take up one's whole life with prayer. 
— Agreed, this is a falling into excess : at least it is 
to step aside from the general path, by an exception 
that will never be multiplied beyond measure. But 
this excess, if it be such, is necessary to correct an 
excess infinitely more dangerous. Man is made to 
weary his body by toil, but he is also made to exer- 
cise his soul by prayer. The health of the whole 
social body, and of the Church in particular, 
demands that these two duties shall be fulfilled with 
equal faithfulness, that prayer shall lift up hearts on 
high while labor bends foreheads to the earth. 
Of these two duties the most important, beyond 
contradiction, is that which impels society toward 
its perfection ; and this is forgotten by the greater 
number of men. Their criminal excess, therefore, 
must have its reparation, and others, who devote 
themselves in their stead, must cast all the weight of 
their prayer into the balance which so many by their 
forgetfulness tend to throw on the side of death. 

We remarked, in addition, that a more exact 
definition of the doctrine of the Communion of 
Saints would help us to understand better the useful- 
ness of the Apostleship of Prayer. 

What are the supernatural good things which 
Christians possess in common ? From what has been 
said at the beginning of this second part, it fol- 
lows that they are of more than one kind. First 



256 KINDS OF SUPERNATURAL GOOD. 

of all, they are merits properly so-called — the fruit of 
supernatural acts, measured by the degree in which 
each one possesses sanctifying grace. Next, they 
are the satisfactions which each one is able to offer to 
God's justice, in place of the chastisement wrrch. 
has been merited by his faults. Moreover, they are 
actual graces, which give strength to perform super- 
natural acts and to acquire merits. Last of all, they 
are consolations and supernatural favors. 

Is each of these different kinds of good alike 
the object of the Communion of Saints ? No : the 
first — merits properly so called — are the inalien- 
able property of the one who acquires them. Jesus 
Christ alone, He Who had nothing to gain for Him- 
self, could communicate to us His merits. As to His 
members, they can gain nothing which they do not 
need for themselves, and in regard to merit they can 
gain nothing which is not to be fully given back to 
them in the glory of heaven. 

The Communion of Saints, therefore, is limited 
to the three other classes of supernatural good — satis- 
factions, consolations, and actual graces. But these 
three kinds of riches are far from being of equal 
importance. Consolations are limited to the short 
space of this life, and may be sacrificed without the 
soul suffering any substantial harm. It is the same 
with regard to satisfactions, although these have a 
much greater value, inasmuch as they can deliver us 
from the painful chastisements of purgatory and 



ACTUAL GRACES AND THE APOSTLESHIP. 257 

hasten our entrance into heaven. Yet their effect 
does not reach beyond a space of time more or less 
limited. Moreover, of themselves they do not add 
the least degree of eternal glory to the treasure of 
him to whom they have been most plentifully given. 
Actual graces, on the contrary, by giving us strength 
to perform meritorious acts and by permitting us to 
increase the number and value of these acts, stretch 
out their influence to all eternity, in proportion as 
they grow in intensity. Hence we must conclude that 
of all the kinds of blessings which the Communion 
of Saints allows us to gain for each other, actual 
graces are beyond all comparison the most precious. 
Now this is the end of the Apostleship of 
Prayer, to stir up the zeal of Christians and to urge 
them to gain for their forsaken brethren these actual 
graces, without which they can neither come forth 
from their tomb nor walk along the way of true life. 
In other words, the Apostleship of Prayer is the 
completest realization of the doctrine of the Com- 
munion of Saints. At the same time, we can do 
nothing more useful for the preservation of the 
Church than resolutely to embrace and generously to 
practise this Apostleship. 



268 the church's mission to souls. 



III. 

Usefulness of the Apostleship of Prayer for the defence and 
increase of the Church. 

The mystical body of Jesus Christ is not only 
designed to preserve the life which its Head has 
gained for it by His death. It is also to communi- 
cate this life to men who have it not. This is the 
end and aim of its existence on earth. The day will 
come when it shall reach its full development ; and 
then it will have only to enjoy in heaven the bless- 
edness and glory which belong to the body of a God. 
But meanwhile is its period of growth. So long as 
it is on earth, it can live only on condition of always 
extending itself by taking to itself new elements. 
To increase and renew the life of the souls which 
have been incorporated with her by baptism, is the 
first duty of the Church ; and this duty she fulfils by 
means of her pastors and the hierarchy of her ordi- 
nary ministry. But this care for the flock that is in 
the fold — for the household of the faith — cannot so 
occupy her as to make her forget those nations which 
form a part of the inheritance left her by her Divine 
Founder, and all those unhappy sheep wandering 
without a shepherd in the desert of infidelity, who 
have been given her to be brought into the one fold. 

For more than eighteen hundred years the 
Church has ceased not for an instant to fulfil this 



THE MINISTRY OF APOSTLES. 259 

difficult task, and to call to the light of the Gospel 
all the peoples seated in the shadow of death. It has 
not been enough for her to call them, to entreat 
them to receive the life of which they are deprived. 
But, how pitiful ! she has been obliged to enter into 
an endless conflict in order to defend against their 
attacks that divine light which alone could enlighten 
their darkness. For the blind, in their unhappy 
state, are not satisfied with choosing the night of 
their errors rather than the light of truth. They 
would even quench the light, for it is their own con- 
demnation. To rest more easily in the bosom of 
death, they would gladly destroy the fountain of life. 

The Church has two painful duties to fulfil in 
her outward life. She has to spread the light and 
scatter the darkness, to teach the truth and refute 
error, to raise the dead and protect that which is 
already in life, to loose the captive and drive back 
slavery. Meanwhile, within herself she strives to 
sanctify and heal those members which have been 
made one body with her by baptism. 

The Church exercises this twofold outward 
mission by a special hierarchy and by the extraordi- 
nary ministry of her apostolic laborers. These are 
heroic men whom the exhaustless life-giving power 
of her Divine Spouse brings forth in her bosom day 
by day. These she presses lovingly to her heart, she 
arms them with the single sword of the Word and 
she sends them forth to fight against the opposition 



260 THE APOSTLESHIP AND THE MISSIONS. 

of the flesh and all the infernal powers. No tongu? 
can tell the labors borne by these generous apostles, 
the trials to which they are subjected, the dangers to 
which they are ever exposed, and the sorrowful 
travail with which they bring forth their children. 
Who, indeed, has not heard their groanings and their 
cries of distress ? 

Here, most of all, the Apostleship of Prayer is 
welcome. These laborers are bowed down over their 
parched fields, they are consumed by the heat of the 
day and worn out by fatigue. But prayer will send 
upon them a refreshing dew to give life to their 
hearts, it will make the soil before them more 
manageable to their ploughshare. These hunters of 
souls struggle against a multitude of wild beasts, 
against whole legions of infernal spirits. The prayers 
of their brethren will bring down upon them from 
heaven plentiful graces to increase their courage, to 
renew their strength, to put their enemies to flight. 
There is not one among these apostolic laborers who 
has not already felt, sensibly this helpful influence of 
his brethren's prayers. There is not one who would 
not bear witness, as did St. Francis Xavier, to these 
well-nigh miraculous effects of the Communion of 
Saints. But how much more blessed would be these 
effects, how much sweeter and more frequent would 
this experience prove, how much vaster would the 
success be, if the many holy souls who now, in the 
world or in their solitude, think only of their own 



THE WITNESS OF ST. TERESA. 261 

interests, would reach out their hands with greater 
fervor to the all-powerful lever of prayer, and by this 
apostleship which is so easy aid the apostleship, so 
painful, of preaching and of martyrdom ! 

Ah ! if our own words are not eloquent enough 
to make souls understand the importance of this duty, 
they will at least listen to a voice whose authority 
they cannot deny. It is the voice of St. Teresa. 
She tells us that, if we wish to please God in anything, 
we must take time to pray for preachers, for the 
defenders of the Church, for the wise men who 
uphold the Church's cause and strive to beat back 
the ravages of heresy. "My daughters in Jesus 
Christ/ ' she cries, " help me in praying to our Lord 
that He will be pleased to remedy so great an evil. 
For this reason we are gathered together here, this is 
the object of our vocation, the rightful subject of our 
prayers, and with this we should occupy ourselves. 
To this all our desires should tend, and this we 
should ask unceasingly of God." 6 

To one who should not understand this language 
and whom words so burning would leave cold and 
indifferent, we could have but one thing to say : he 
strangely deceives himself if he thinks he loves Jesus 
Christ his Saviour, or the men who are his brethren, 
or the Church he calls his Mother. 

6 Way of Perfection (addressed to the Carmelite nuns), 
chapter i. 



262 ZEAL FOR THE MISSIONS. 



IV. 

Usefulness of the Apostleship of Prayer for bringing forth anfc 
developing apostolic vocations. 

The Apostleship of Prayer may help more effica- 
ciously still to the increase and defence of the 
Church, by raising up co-workers and rivals of her 
wonderful laborers. 

We may indeed hope that the precious seed of 
zeal, fertilized by prayer and ever unfolding itself 
more and more in the heart of the Associates of this 
work, will stir up and strengthen in them the desire 
of the missions; and many may feel themselves 
called to share in the useful toils of the apostles. 
The ever increasing number of the members of the 
clergy and the apostolic spirit that seems, more than 
ever before, to move priests and the very laymen, 
give promise to the missionaries of strong reinforce- 
ments and a flourishing posterity. 

Thus we may turn the thoughts and actions of 
the members of our association toward the foreign 
missions, and fill them with the importance and 
greatness of this work ; and this not only in the case 
of the young Levitesand pupils in the houses of edu- 
cation, but also with those Christian mothers who 
have so great influence over the vocation of their 
children. Beyond all dispute, this would be a high 
service given to the beautiful work of the missions, 



THE CRY OF SOULS. 263 

to the unbelieving people whose salvation is to come 
from the missions, and to the Church of which the 
missions are the glory. It would be to correspond 
with God's grace, by pointing out to the many 
generous hearts that can distinguish themselves in 
this sublime calling those far-off shores where their 
brethren are face to face with error, and by fixing 
their attention on those unhappy nations still buried 
in the shadows of death, but stretching out their arms 
to their future deliverers and seeming to address 
them in touching words : Pass over the seas, and 
help us? 

How many souls are called to great things, and 
yet seem not to suspect their own power unto life, 
and so consume in idle cares their treasures of devot- 
edness and energy. 

Perhaps the Apostleship of Prayer will reveal 
them to themselves, by sounding in their ears those 
heart-rending cries of the apostle of the Indies: 
1 ' How mistaken in their reckoning are all those 
unfortunate men who turn to their own private 
advantage the talents and knowledge which God 
gave them for the good of their brethren ! What an 
account they will have to give one day of their 
knowledge and their talents ! How often it has come 
into my mind to go over to Europe, even though I 
should be considered a fool, and passing through the 
academies of learning, most of all the University of 

7 Acts, xvi. 9. 
No. 2 — 4 



264 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER'S APPEAL. 

Paris, to cry aloud to all those wise men who have 
more learning than fear of God : By your fault a 
numberless multitude of souls are shut out from the 
kingdom of heaven, and plunged into the everlasting 
abyss." 8 

8 St. Francis Xavier, Letttrs. 



THE AIM OF THE APOSTLESHIP. 265 

V. 

Usefulness of the Apostleship of Prayer for drawing closer the 
bonds which unite all the members of the Church. 

Last of all, a mutual gathering up of prayers like 
this must have for its result to reunite and weld 
together in one and the same feeling all Catholic 
hearts. 

The greater glory of God, the salvation of souls, 
is the end of all the endeavors of its Associates and 
the only goal of their desires. The union of prayers 
will strengthen and draw closer among them the 
bonds of charity. Henceforward, there will be no 
more of that jealous rivalry and distrust and narrow 
sensitiveness which too often belittle and paralyze 
the action of their zeal. Instead of these growths of 
discord, we shall see vigorous and fruitful shoots of 
the Gospel Vine, multiplied and interlaced and grown 
together. All religious bodies, all pious associations, 
all laborers for Jesus Christ, who sincerely desire to 
bring forth fruit in Him, will be of one mind. In 
wondrous harmony they will labor to procure the 
glory of their common Master and the good of their 
brethren ; and on their side the faithful will work 
together with their pastors for the same end. What 
cannot we promise ourselves from so many efforts so 
well united together ? 

Considerations like these should be enough to 
make us understand how far the Apostleship of Prayer 



266 THE APOSTLESHIP'S AID TO THE CHURCH. 

belongs alike to the spirit and to the interests of the 
Church. The Church has no other mission than to 
establish the kingdom of Jesus Christ, to sanctify 
souls, to lead unbelievers to the knowledge of the 
truth and sinners to the life of grace, to gather together 
in one, by the bonds of faith and love, the children 
of God that were dispersed in a thousand ways. 9 
Assuredly, nothing could better aid the Church to 
fulfil this mission than a work whose aim shall be to 
place before the eyes of Christians her boundless 
interests, and to impel them to make use of all their 
energy and all the merits they may acquire, of all 
their prayers and actions and sacrifices, of all their 
sufferings, whether free or involuntary, in hastening 
the triumph of these interests. How much force is 
lost, how much endeavor remains barren, how many 
faculties are paralyzed and souls dissatisfied with 
themselves, how many natural gifts and supernatural 
graces are made fruitless, which would find their own 
conditions of fruitfulness and use and satisfaction if 
this work came to be universally adopted ! What an 
increase of life would then be in the body of the 
Church, and what contentment for the Heart of Jesus 
—for that Heart Which came to cast fire on the earth 
and Which for eighteen centuries wills only, yet 
vainly, alas ! to see the whole world kindled with it. 10 
A cup of water given to one of His Apostles is to the 
Christian who thus comforts them in their weariness 
worth the reward of the Apostles. What then shall 
9 St John, xi. 52. 10 St. Luke, xii. 49. 



THE CREATURE'S GIFT TO THE CREATOR. 267 

be the value of the almsgiving of prayer and of the 
supernatural grace which is its fruit ? For whosoever 
shall give you to drink a cup of water in My name, 
because you belong to Christ : Amen I say to you, he 
shall not lose his reward. u To give such help to those 
who spend themselves for the salvation of souls is 
truly to labor together with them in making up to 
Jesus Christ that which is wanting to Him. For the 
Church, according to St. Paul, is the fulness of Jesus 
Christ, and it is Jesus Christ Himself Who grows with 
the growth of the Church. 12 

It is our highest glory to be able, in virtue of 
our union with our Divine Head, to help according 
to the measure of the grace communicated to us to 
give Him new r members. That we may in all things 
grow up in Him Who is the Head, even Christ : from 
Whom the whole body being compacted and fitly joined 
together, by what every joint supplieth, according to the 
Qperation in the measure of every part, maketh increase 
of the body unto the edifying of itself in charity}* What 
an honor for a creature to be able, in some way, to 
give back to its Creator the being it has received 
from Him, to give Him perfectness even as He has 
perfected it, and to assure Him for ever and ever in 
His members a bliss like in all things to that which 
the creature awaits from His liberality ! 

11 St. Mark, ix. 40. 

12 The Church, which is His body and the fulness of Him 
Who is filled all in all. Ephesians, i. 23. 

13 Ephesians, iv. 15-6. 



268 THE WARRANT OF FINAL PERSEVERANCE. 



VI. 

Conclusion — the Apostleship of Prayer, a sure pledge of pre- 
destination — the thought of the Saints. 

We will conclude our exposition of the advan- 
tages of the Apostleship of Prayer to the individual 
and to society, by pointing out the most precious of 
all. There need be no doubt in asserting it. Such 
an apostleship, practised fervently and constantly, 
warrants the Christian in awaiting with confidence 
from the goodness of his God that grace which is the 
crown of all others — the grace of final perseverance. 
How indeed could we imagine that God would cast 
into hell one who by his sacrifices and his prayers has 
been the means of saving from it a multitude of souls? 
How could the Heavenly Father shut out from His 
household one who has increased His family by many 
members? How could Jesus Christ, Whose blood 
the Christian has made fruitful and Whose most 
earnest desires he has realized — how could He con- 
found him in the same reprobation with those who 
have labored to destroy souls and have trampled 
under foot His precious blood ? 

He has promised to bring to the possession of 
His kingdom all those who shall have fed Him and 
given Him to drink, clothed Him and visited Him, 
in the person of the least of His brethren. If this is 
the reward of works of corporal mercy, how much 



THE MERIT OF SPIRITUAL MERCY. 269 

more sublime and how much more certain must be 
the crown laid up for the far more meritorious works 
of spiritual mercy ! Most of all, in the person of 
poor sinners does God our Saviour hunger. In them 
He thirsts, in them He is naked, in them He is 
brought low to the hardest slavery. In some way He 
has died when He ceased to live in them. This death 
of sin which He suffers in the members of His mys- 
tical body is for Him the most fearful of all His 
sufferings. To be freed from it He offered unto 
God, in the Garden of Olives, His prayers and sup- 
plications, with strong cries and plentiful tears. In 
the days of His flesh, with a strong cry and tears, He 
offered up prayers and supplications to Him that was 
able to save Him from death}** To be delivered from 
them He sacrificed His natural life; and He was 
ready, had it been necessary, to suffer a thousand 
deaths. How great then should be His gratitude to 
all those who by their prayers and their sacrifices 
become in very deed His deliverers. With what love 
will He not say to them, as He brings all His bless- 
ings together for them: " Come, ye blessed of My 
Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from 
the fomidation of the world ; for I was hungry, and 
you gave Me to eat : I was thirsty, and you gave Me 
to drink : I was a stranger, and you took Me in : 
naked, and you covered Me : sick, and you visited Me : 
J was in prison, and you came to Me. 15 In My own 

14 Hebrews, v. 7. 

15 St. Matthew, xxv. 34-6. 



270 ST. CATHARINE OF SIENNA. 

members I had lost My life, and you have given it 
back to Me." 

We have no longer to hesitate. We must take 
up with love that which is so glorious for ourselves, 
so pleasing to our Lord, so useful to the Church and 
to souls. Thus we shall march on in the footsteps of 
the Saints of every age, and give ear to their most 
urgent bidding. 

St. Catharine of Sienna says to us : " God takes 
so great pleasure in the service we render to His 
Church that we have no words to express it, most of 
all when such services come from pure zeal for the 
growth and exaltation of the Church." On another 
occasion she writes to a holy priest : "I call upon 
you to devote yourself with courage to the service of 
Holy Church. I make the same prayer to those who 
are of your company, and I beseech you all to occupy 
yourselves with a holy and pure intention in procur- 
ing the good of the cherished Spouse of Jesus Christ. 
There is on earth no labor more comforting and 
more useful." 

Thus she offered herself to God, to make repa- 
ration by her sufferings for the sins of the Christian 
people. Her sacrifice was pleasing in the eyes of 
heaven. Men saw her a prey to unspeakable pains 
and an object of persecution to the demons, who let 
loose on her their fury and their rage. For all that 
she ceased not to pray. Day by day while she was 
in Rome she went to the Basilica of St. Peter, and 



ST. GERTRUDE AND OTHERS. 271 

there placed before our Lord, through the interces- 
sion of this powerful Apostle, the needs of the 
Catholic Church. " There," she was wont to say, 
" I toil in the very bark of the Church. " " Most 
Holy Father," she wrote to Pope Urban VI., "I 
burn with desire, unworthy as I am, to give my blood 
and my life and the marrow of my bones for Holy 
Church." 

One day our Lord appeared to St. Gertrude, 
bearing on His shoulders a lofty and magnificent 
building. "See," He said to her, "with what toil 
and sweat and disquiet of every kind I uphold this 
edifice, which is nothing else than religion itself. 
It tends toward its ruin throughout the world because 
so few persons are found in the world who are willing 
to do or suffer something for its support and its 
advancement. You must join with Me in My desires, 
and take upon yourself a part of this burden. For 
all those who strive by word or action to advance 
religion are so many strong columns to uphold this 
holy house, and they bring solace to Me by sharing 
with Me the weight of this burden." 

In every age souls devoted to God have felt 
themselves impelled to give Him this consolation. 

The Venerable Mary of the Incarnation [found- 
ress of the Ursulines of Canada] was wont to say : 
"In spirit I go round the world to seek for all the 
souls redeemed by the precious blood of my Divine 
Spouse. I offer them to God the Father through 
No. 2 — 4* 



272 THE THOUGHT OF HOLY SOULS. 

Jesus Christ, and by this Divine Mediator I entreat 
their conversion." 

St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi, enkindled with 
holy zeal, fifty times each day offered to God the 
blood of Jesus Christ for sinners. She was devoured 
with her desires for their conversion. " What pain 
I feel, O my God," she cried, " when I see how useful 
I might be to Thy creatures by giving my life for 
them, and yet I am not free to do so." In all her 
exercises of piety she recommended sinners to God, 
and at almost every hour she prayed for them. Often 
she arose by night, and before the Blessed Sacrament 
asked for their conversion. One day they questioned 
her as to the reason of her tears. "I weep," she 
said, "because it seems to me I do nothing for the 
salvation of sinners." Especially did she pray for 
priests, who by their high calling and their holy 
ministry ought to take the chief part in the work of 
sanctifying souls. 

These sentiments too were found in one of the 
holiest souls of our day, the foundress of a religious 
community in France, called the Presentation. 16 
"I cannot be at rest, O my God," she said, "so 
long as there is a corner of the earth where Thou art 
not known and loved. I have no other comfort 
whatever than to weep over my own sins and for 
those of the whole world ; and although my heart is 
then weighed down by grief, I would not give the 

16 Venerable Mother Rivier. 



THE DOCTORS OF THE CHURCH. 273 

satisfaction I find in doing this for all the joys of the 
world, nor even for all the ecstasy and sweetness of 
devotion. " 

The same sentiments are found in another of 
these pious souls of our day, who founded the House 
of Mercy at Bordeaux. 17 Beginning with the year 
1 817, she worked out in her community that associa- 
tion of which we have now traced the plan, by the 
pious agreements she took the pains to make between 
her community and the different apostles who set sail 
from Bordeaux for the foreign missions. 

St. Alphonsus Liguori says: "All those who 
truly love God cease not to pray for poor sinners. 
Is it possible to love God, to see the love He has for 
souls, to consider all that Jesus Christ has done and 
suffered for them and the desire He has that we 
should pray for sinners, and yet be indifferent for so 
great a number of unhappy slaves of the demon and 
not entreat our Lord to enlighten them and to give 
them the strength to come forth from their deadly 
state?" 18 

But we have words of yet higher moment from 
the greatest Doctor of the Greek Church — St. John 
Chrysostom. He will prove to us that the Apostle- 
ship of Prayer simply brings to light, under a new 
name, a practice which has always been looked upon 
in the Church as not only very meritorious and per- 
fect, but even as of strict obligation. 

17 Mademoiselle de Lamouroux. 

18 On Prayer *, ch. iii. 



274 THE PRAYERS OF SOLITARIES. 

He says : "If anyone desires to be pleasing to 
Jesus Christ, let him have a care for His sheep, let 
him strive to advance the public good, let him labor 
to secure the salvation of his brethren. The employ- 
ment which is most pleasing to God and the greatest 
proof of love and devotedness to Jesus Christ, is the 
care which we have of His brethren and the labors 
we undertake for their salvation. Let all understand 
this, even those pious solitaries who have gone far 
away to the summit of desert mountains that they 
may live there a crucified life, separate from the 
world and dead to all created things. They too 
must give aid, according to their power, to the 
pastors of the Church. They should know that they 
must bring down the help of God's grace on those 
who are exposed to so many dangers, and should aid 
and comfort, in every manner possible to them, those 
who bear up under the labor and solicitude of so 
many cares. Even though they dwell afar, unless 
they do this their mode of life is without merit in 
God's eyes, and all their wisdom has made ship- 
wreck." 19 

Not alone under the New Law have the friends 
of God sighed for the perfect coming of His king- 
dom. It was the object of all the desires of the just 
of the Old Law. St. Paul tells us : All these died 
according to faith, ?tot having received the promises y 
but beholding them afar off and saluting them. 20 

19 Sermo de S. Philogonio. 

20 Hebrews, xi. 13. 



THE JUST OF THE OLD LAW. 275 

David, the Prophet-King, exclaimed : May God 

have mercy on us . . . that we may know Thy way 

upon earth, Thy salvation in all nations. Let peoples 

confess to Thee, O God, let all peoples give praise to 

Thee. 21 

As the night went on and the Sun of Justice 
neared the horizon, the desire for His coming became 
more and more ardent. There is a prayer of the son 
of Sirach, which the Church has chosen, rather than 
any text of the New Testament, to be the epistle of 
the beautiful votive Mass for the Propagation of the 
Faith. We can hardly find in the Holy Scriptures a 
page expressing more touchingly the sentiments 
which the Apostleship of Prayer is calculated to 
bring into the hearts of men. 

Have mercy on its, O God of all, and behold us 
and show us the light of Thy mercies : 

And send Thy fear upon the natio7is that have not 
sought after Thee, that they may know that there is no 
God beside Thee, a?id that they may show forth Thy 
wonders. 

Lift up Thy hands over the strange nations, that 
they may see Thy power. 

For as Thou hast been sanctified in us in their 
sight, so Thou shall be magnified among them in our 
presence : 

That they may know Thee, as zve also have known 
Thee, that there is no God beside Thee, O Lord. 

21 Psalm, lxvi. 



276 THE PROPACxATION OF THE FAITH. 

Renew Thy signs, and work new miracles. 

Glorify Thy hand, and Thy right arm. 

Hasten the time, and remember the end, that they 
may declai'e Thy wonderful works. 

Crush the head of the princes of the enemies, that 
say : There is no other beside us. 

Gather together all the tribes of Jacob. 

Have mercy on Thy people, upon whom Thy name 
is invoked : 

Have mercy on Jerusalem, the city which Thou 
hast sanctified, the city of Thy rest. 

Reward them that patiently wait for Thee, that 
Thy prophets may be found faithful ; and hear the 
prayers of Thy servants, 

According to the blessing of Aaron over Thy 
people, and direct us into the way of justice, and let 
all know that dwell upon the earth, that Thou art God 
the Beholder of all ages. 22 

22 Ecclesiasticus, xxxvi. 



CHAPTER IV. 

SEASONABLENESS OF THE APOSTLESHI? OF PRAYER. 

Analysis. The Apostleship, a renouncement of self 
specially suited to our day — the present state of the world. 

I. Motives of hope. The Church's twofold hope — ["Signs 
of the Times "] — no sudden intervention hoped — God's manner 
of acting. [Summary of present condition — hopes of the Sover- 
eign Pontiffs ] The world's impulse toward unity — past experi- 
ence — God faithful. 

II. Motives of fear. The future from the past — diminu- 
tion of the Church's influence. Future of Europe without Christ- 
ianity—the worship of matter. The world without religion — 
civilized barbarism — material without moral progress. The 
Church, the only salvation — offerings for her triumph. 

III. Motives of fear changed to motives of hope by Gods 
mercy — Conclusion. The prophecy of Ezechiel — its two lessons 
of mercy. The condition, prayer — the calling of apostles. 



277 



Seasonableness of the Apostleship of Prayer. 

It should be understood by this time that we can 
run no risk in forgetting ourselves for God. With 
Him it is impossible that we should become poor 
through excess of generosity. For spiritual goods, 
as for those which are corporeal, there is a renounce- 
ment that has its hundredfold reward here below, 
while waiting for the infinite reward laid up in 
heaven. It is the renouncement which the Apostle- 
ship of Prayer puts us in a condition to practise, by 
recalling to us the great interests of God and the 
Church and of souls. In return for the prayers and 
sacrifices which it leads us to make, it secures to us, 
as we have seen, merits the most plentiful, satisfac- 
tions the most effective, and consolations the most 
comforting. And in the societies where it is estab- 
lished it becomes a principle of union and peace and 
prosperity, and for the Church a pledge of renewal 
and of triumph. 

But these privileges of prayer inspired by zeal 
have nothing peculiar to the times in which we live. 
They are as everlasting and as changeless as the 
promises of the Saviour which are their foundation. 
We can say that they are an outcome of the nature 
278 



SPECIAL IMPORTANCE IN OUR DAY. 279 

of things. For prayer is the divinest of all instru- 
ments and zeal the divinest of all movers ; and so it 
is impossible that the human heart should bring into 
play this twofold force without itself being filled unta 
all the fulness of God} 

Of course, we might rest content with motives 
so powerful, without explaining further the special 
importance we attach to impressing on the Christians 
of our day the great duty of prayer. He who shows 
his fellow-men some precious mine, hitherto but little 
worked, would scarcely be condemned to justify him- 
self for doing them this service. It is true also that 
considerations like these, which impel us to redoubled 
ardor, however encouraging they are of themselves, 
become a kind of reproach for our past negligence. 
But it is the reproach full of love which the Heart of 
Jesus for eighteen hundred years has made to all those 
who love Him. / am come to cast fire on earth, and 
what will I but that it be kindled? 11 So long as there 
is in the world a single people estranged from the 
knowledge and love of the Saviour, these words 
should put Christians to the blush. For they prove to 
them that they have not yet done all that is in their 
power to render effective the merciful desires of their 
God. 

Thus it can never be beyond the purpose to urge 
this great duty on the children of the Church. But 
we may also say that care in doing this was never so 

1 Ephesians, iii. 19. 2 St. Luke, xii. 49. 



280 THE PRESENT STATE OF THE WORLD. 

seasonable as in our own day. More than ever before 
there is a pressing need for us to make a great effort 
toward a generous co-operation with the desires of 
the Heart of Jesus. More than ever, too, we have 
reason to promise ourselves that such an effort will 
be crowned with the sublimest triumphs. We need 
only to look at the present state of the world, to be 
convinced of these two truths. On the one side, we 
shall understand that it was never easier for the 
Church to come into possession of the inheritance 
which her Divine Spouse has won for her by His 
death. On the other, we cannot hide it from our- 
selves that, if the whole world does not come into 
the fold of the Good Shepherd, it will fall a prey to 
the most appalling barbarism. 

From this arise two kinds of motives, equally 
well suited to stir us to zeal for the Apostleship of 
Prayer. They are motives of hope and motives of 
fear. 



THE CHURCH'S TWOFOLD HOPE. 281 

I. 

Motives of hope. 

Two kinds of promises have been made to the 
Church of Jesus Christ. The first are for all time, 
and their fulfilment can be hindered by no power, 
human or infernal. These are the promises made 
tier by her Divine Founder, that she shall never die. 
It is He Who said — The gates of hell shall not prevail 
against her * The other promises are to be realized 
at a time more or less remote, and they depend upon 
the co-operation of men. They foretell to the Church 
the entire submission of all nations to her maternal 
rule, and the gathering together of all tribes and 
races toward the holy mountain whence she is to 
give them their laws. 

It is the hopes based on these latter promises 
that we are now to consider. We fear not to declare 
that the Church never had greater reason to believe 
in their near fulfilment. 

[In regard to what are called " Signs of the Times," and 
conjectures of the world's and Church's future to be drawn from 
them, the rule of the Prophet Jeremias, in the midst of his 
Lamentations, is practically the best. The Lord is good to them 
that hope in Him, . , . Lt is good to wait with silence for 
the salvation of God. 4 

8 St. Matthew, xvi. 18. 
4 iii. 2,5-6. 



282 SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 

The circumstances of Father Rami ere 's life led him to 
watch with keen interest the gradual falling away from Christian 
principle of civilized nations and human society on the one hand, 
and the steady counter-progress of the Church's true life among 
individuals on the other ; and he followed eagerly the spread of 
the Catholic faith among heathen nations. Unlike some recent 
writers on these subjects, he speculated little and augured nothing 
in detail of things to come. He was content to study earnestly 
the teachings of the Sacred Scriptures and the writings of the 
Saints and Doctors of the Church, with a careful examination of 
her past experience. To this he added a deep study of the 
various approved devotions which have come among Christians 
accredited by those private revelations that proceed from the 
gift of prophecy vouchsafed, when it pleases God's Providence, 
to certain holy souls. This is very different from gathering 
together prophecies, true or supposed, and then literally interpret- 
ing their meaning. 

The devotions of the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate 
Conception especially drew the attention of Father Ramiere, as 
giving signs of providential interposition ; and to these he added 
the ever-increasing devotion to St. Joseph. The result of his 
pious researches was first published in a considerable volume on 
the Hopes of the Church. This appeared shortly after the great 
event of the dogmatic definition of the Immaculate Conception, 
and drew forth a letter from Pius IX. It was edited by its 
author a second time after the appearance of the famous Syllabus, 
and it still remains one of the most learned and inspiring works 
on the supernatural life of the Church amidst the world. 

The present work on the Apostleship of Prayer, as the 
reader has already seen, proposes Father Ramiere's plan for the 
realization of the " hopes of the Church." At this place, he 
began a running review of the actual state of the world in regard 
to Christianity. This he intended chiefly to supply information 
concerning the great needs of the C Lurch which were the inten- 



THE PRESENT DISCOURAGEMENT. 283 

tions specially proposed to the Associates of the Apostleship of 
Prayer, when he had succeeded in organizing it into " a League of 
Christian hearts united with the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to obtain 
the salvation of the world and the triumph of the Church." At 
the time of its first publication, the definite organization of what 
has since become a universal league of prayer had not been com- 
pleted ; some one special need of the Church was not chosen out 
each month to be approved and blessed by the Sovereign Pontiff 
as a General Intention for the prayers of the Associates, nor was 
there yet an organized means of proposing these intentions, as 
there is now, through the many Messengers of the Sacred Heart 
in the different languages. At present, when the whole work 
has reached its mature and settled growth, this review is of less 
use ; in fact, during the author's own lifetime, it was necessarily 
modified for each new edition of his book. It is well, however, 
to give here the final defined views of our author on those hopes 
which he looked to the Apostleship of Prayer to realize in large 
measure. They are taken from his preface to the last edition of 
his work — Les Esperances de PEglise.~\ 

In the eyes of more than one reader, it will 
seem an ill-chosen time to give new publicity to writ- 
ings which have for name and theme the " Hopes of 
the Church." 

We must indeed acknowledge that all the events 
which have taken place for many years back would 
seem bitterly to give the lie to any such hopes. 

The present period of the earthly existence of 
the Church recalls that darkest hour of our Saviours 
mortal life, when His most faithful friends suffered 
themselves to be overcome by discouragement. They 
had seen Him making His triumphal entry into 



284 NO SUDDEN INTERVENTION. 

Jerusalem, surrounded by the people crying Hosanna 
and followed by the very foreigners, who were drawn 
to Him as by a resistless charm ; and they doubted 
not the time had come when He would once again 
set up the kingdom in Israel. But soon the illusion 
faded. It was not alone the indifferent who dropped 
away ; His very admirers were turned into enemies. 
After the Hosanna was heard — "Crucify Him!" 
He Who had just been acclaimed as the King of 
Israel was now forsaken of all, and given over defence- 
less to His tormentors ; cruelly scourged and nailed 
to the Cross, He died between two thieves. 

In the space of a few years, we too have seen 
the existence of the Church passing through a like 
phase. 

Some Catholics may have expected a sudden 
intervention of the Immaculate Virgin and persuaded 
themselves that the enemies of the Church, over- 
thrown in a moment like St. Paul on his way to 
Damascus, would be transformed into faithful serv- 
ants. We have never cherished such a hope. In the 
writings which we are now republishing, we declared 
this to be the result of a study of the ways followed 
by Providence in the past. All leads us to believe 
that, before God brings about the triumph of his 
Church, He will wait until His enemies have put 
forth the utmost power of their rage against her, 
and even until they seem to have utterly triumphed 
over her. 



god's manner of acting. 285 

It was rLus that Jesus Christ, Whose mortal life 
is the type of the earthly existence of the Church, 
conquered death by letting Himself be conquered by 
it ; and He attained to the full success of His mission 
when He gave Himself up into the hands of His 
executioners. 

Thus too the Church triumphed over the cruelty 
of the Roman emperors, the subtlety of heresies, the 
barbarism of the peoples of the North, the tyranny 
of Christian kings and emperors, and over all the 
enemies with whom she has had to struggle during 
the toilsome course of her existence. Her triumph 
came, not from disarming them before the strife, but 
only after she had undergone the uttermost excesses 
of their hostility and rage. 

God always holds the same manner of acting, of 
which we have so striking a picture in the great vision 
of the Prophet IZzechiel. Before He again breathes 
forth the spirit of life, God waits until death has 
done its work. Son of man, dost thou think these 
bones shall live ? And I said, O Lord God, Thou 
knowest. And He said to me : Prophesy concerning 
these bones, and say to them — Ye dry bones, hear the 
word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God to these 
bones : Behold, I will send spirit into you and you 
shall live I . . . And you shall know that L am 
the Lord. For God, says St. Paul, hath concluded all 
in unbelief, that He may have mercy on all.' 

5 Ezechiel, xxxvii ; Romans, xi. 32. 



286 SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT CONDITION. 

[Even a brief summary of the condition of the Catholic 
Church in the world at the close of the nineteenth century, would 
have to bring out the following points : 

I. Unfavorably : the laws restraining the action of the 
clergy and dispersing the teaching religious orders, and the 
attempt to secularize education, thus making sure that the child's 
mind and heart shall be occupied for the most part with merely 
natural objects ; the developing of this system of Naturalism, with 
constant attacks on the Church, by leading writers on the natural 
sciences and history, and the use of the public press in spreading 
it among all classes of society; the systematic organization of 
irreligion, thus brought into vogue, in the sect of Freemasonry, 
serving as a centre to those secret societies which gather together 
the proud and sensual children of the Church in Catholic nations 
and the indifferent or infidel populations of Protestant countries ; 
the victory won over supernatural religion by the overthrow of 
the Pope's temporal power — a prelude in the eyes of the enemies 
of the Church to the final triumph of irreligion over Christianity. 

II. Favorably : among the individual members of the 
Church, the greater frequentation of the Sacraments and the pro- 
gress of essentially supernatural devotions, like that of the Sacred 
Heart and the Immaculate Conception, calculated to root habits 
of faith in the Christian conscience ; also, the enlightening of 
careless minds by the openly hostile manifestations of the irre- 
ligious spirit; 

In the Church as a society, the spread of spiritual works, 
like the Apostleship of Prayer — of works of missionary zeal, 
like the Propagation of the Faith and the Holy Childhood — of 
works of mercy closely united with supernatural practices, like 
the Conferences of St. Vincent de Paul ; also, the slow but steady 
recovery of the Church's activity in nations that have struck the 
severest blows at her, as in Germany after the " Culturkampf.'' 
and in Spanish America after many generations of constant revo- 
lution; the continuous growth and increasing efficiency of the 



THE HOPES OF THE SOVEREIGN PONTIFFS. 287 

foreign missions, the renewed relations with the Oriental Churches, 
and the activity of the Church in international movements, as 
for the condition of the workingmen and abolition of the slave- 
trade ; the new life given to the training of the clergy, to solid 
learning and public piety, by the dispositions of the Sovereign 
Pontiffs ; especially, the triumph of truth over error by the dog- 
matic definitions of the Immaculate Conception and Papal Infal- 
libility in the face of all opposition, and the responsive move- 
ments of the Catholic people as shown in spontaneous pilgrimages 
to Lourdes and Paray-le-Monial and other shrines of the 
Blessed Virgin and the Sacred Heart, and to Rome itself, includ- 
ing all classes of society from all parts of the world. 

From these favorable " Signs of the Times," the Sovereign 
Pontiffs have gathered hope for the future during the late years 
of storm and trial. Thus Pius IX. in 1 854, in the Bull Ineffa- 
bilis defining the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, gave 
utterance to these words : " With sure hope and all confidence 
we wait for this Most Blessed Virgin to bring it to pass that our 
Holy Mother the Church may flourish throughout all nations, 
that all hindrances may be taken from her path and every error 
be overthrown ; and that all the erring may return to the way of 
truth, and there may be one fold and one shepherd." Leo XIII., 
in different Encyclical Letters on the Rosary, the Third Order 
of St. Francis, the devotion to the Sacred Heart, and elsewhere, 
has repeatedly put before the faithful the same supernatural 
grounds of hope while insisting on the grave dangers from a 
natural point of view. Thus in his address to the Associates of 
the Apostleship of Prayer, on the 23d of November, 1879, ne 
spoke as follows : " Our confidence is further increased when we 
reflect that the manifestation of this devotion to the Sacred Heart 
is a new and gracious pledge of the charity of Jesus Christ "Who 
has wished thereby to call back to 1 1 imself the world which has 
gone astray, that it may make its peace with God and enjoy the 

plentiful fruits 6f redemption.'" Ten years later, when raising 
No. 2 — 5 



288 THE IMPULSE TOWARD UNITY. 

the feast of the Sacred Heart to a higher rank in the universal 
Church, he promises that " the faithful shall find in this truly 
salutary devotion a refuge and a defence against the ever-increas- 
ing onslaughts of impiety." And, in the same year (15 August, 
1889), urging once more on the Christian people the practice of 
the Rosary and devotion to St. Joseph, he concludes confidently : 
" For, sooner or later, pious prayers and hope in God's goodness 
will bear their fruit." 

It is of such hopes, and their warrant in the present condi- 
tion of the Church and the world, that Father Ramiere goes on 
to speak.] 

It is very true, therefore, that in the Church of 
our day a work of life is going on — a travail, so to 
speak, that is making itself felt at every point of the 
globe. 

This work corresponds with a similar movement 
that is going on in human society, and which fur- 
nishes us with an equally solid motive of good 
augury for the future. I speak of that resistless 
impulse which is leading all the peoples of the world 
to come together and unite with each other. 

For it is impossible to doubt that all social 
currents are impelling the human race toward unity. 
Unity is the aspiration, the want and the necessity 
of our age. Even the exaggeration of this tendency 
and the crimes to which it serves as a pretext prove 
how deep it is. It says that our age experiences an 
urgent need of the truth and the Church ; for there 
is no real unity possible but in the Church and 
through the truth. In the Church alone is unity of 



THE LESSON OF EXPERIENCE. 289 

doctrine, because in her alone is there a teaching 
authority. Without her pale there are but opinions, 
and consequently dissensions and strife. In the 
Church alone is there unity of interests. For she 
alone shows to men, above those earthly interests 
which of their nature are opposed to each other, an 
eternal interest common to all, which they can secure 
only by the sacrifice of their selfishness. In the 
Church alone is found the unity of the great human 
family. For she alone, by her teaching of a common 
origin, upholds the doctrine of a common destiny. 
She alone teaches men to consider each other in 
Jesus Christ as true brethren and the adoptive sons 
of the Heavenly Father. Thus, between human 
society which desires unity at any price and the 
Church which alone can realize such unity, there can 
be no serious dissension. At most, there can be 
misunderstanding. If this misunderstanding can 
cease, if society can come to know at last what the 
Church wishes and what it wishes itself, the reconcil- 
iation cannot fail of being wrought. 

If we look into history we shall see that in every 
period wherein nations were drawn near to each 
other, in all foundations of great empires, God put 
forth His miraculous efforts to crown this merely out- 
ward unity by a unity that is within and far more 
salutary — the unity of truth. Nabuchodonosor, 
Cyrus, and Alexander were the predestined heads of 
three monarchies that, one after the other, held pos- 



290 GOD FAITHFUL. 

session of the empire of the world ; and they received 
light from heaven that would have been enough for 
them to convert the world, had they been entirely 
faithful. The Incarnation of the Word — the great 
effort toward uniting together all the children of God 
— coincides in time with the vast unity brought 
about by the arms of Rome. Since that time, the 
ages which are the most remarkable by. their tend- 
encies to draw nations nearer to each other — the 
fourth, the thirteenth, and the sixteenth centuries — 
have been likewise remarkable for the virtue, the 
power of speech, and the miracles of Saints whom 
God raised up in His Church. Who can doubt that 
at this present time, when the unity of all peoples is 
becoming incalculably closer than ever before, when 
society more than ever stands in need of the Church 
and of her Saints, God will grant us His assistance ? 
It should seem that He would be wanting to Himself 
if, when He has promised to give all nations as an 
inheritance to His Son, He had no care for the great 
opportunity now before Him of bringing that Son 
into possession of the inheritance so long squandered. 
No, it is not God Who will tarry. Only let us do 
our duty — let us pray and sigh and labor, and we 
shall see the redemption of Israel and the salvation 
of the world. 



THE FUTURE FROM THE PAST. 291 

II. 

Motives of fear. 

Yet, after all, hope must not blind us to the real 
dangers which society is running at the present time. 
We have solid motives for reckoning much on the 
help of God's mercy. But we have reasons quite as 
serious for strong fears of the avenging justice of 
God. 

Perhaps the East was not guiltier than Europe is 
to-day, when it was given over to the darkness of 
schism and delivered a prey to the avenging sword 
of Mahomet. Africa had its Augustine and its Ful- 
gentius, its virgins and martyrs, in a word, Saints 
more numerous than our own perhaps, when all its 
flourishing churches were broken in upon and devas- 
tated by the flood of barbarians. How can we 
assure ourselves that a similar fate is not in store for 
us, if we push our obstinacy yet further and do not 
put a speedy end to a revolt now counting its three 
centuries of existence ? What reason have we not for 
fearing that society may sink lower and lower in its 
blindness, so long as the most appalling calamities do 
not draw it from the abyss in spite of itself? The 
outcome of our latest trials has been, alas ! too incom- 
plete, not to give us reason to think that, for working 
a serious renewal in a body already gangrened with 
covetousness and sensuality, there would be needed 
nothing less than a deluge of blood. 



292 DIMINUTION OF THE CHURCH* S INFLUENCE. 

We are not then to shut our eyes to these 
motives of fear. On the contrary, let us have the 
courage to look them coolly in the face. A calm and 
reasoned view of our dangers will stir up zeal and 
strengthen resolution to co-operate with all our power 
in the action of God's mercy, seeking to save us. 

To appreciate fully the dangers of the present 
situation of society, we will ask ourselves two ques- 
tions. 

i. What have we to fear for Europe [and for all 
civilized countries], if it does not accept the spiritual 
rule of the Church ?* 

Countries mainly Protestant make up more than 
one third of Europe. Besides this, a large number 
of the educated classes in Catholic countries, as is 
well known, profess toward the Church, which is 
their Mother by their baptism, the most unjust pre- 
judices and a distrust full of hatred. This state of 
things, it is also well known, is owing to an impious 
press and an irreligious education. Now, so long as 
it exists, the Church, instead of gaining, can but lose 
ground day by day. For all influence travels from 
above downward, and the lower classes unavoidably 
fashion themselves on those superior to them. It is 
very important, therefore, to foresee the outcome of 

6 [In questions of this kind America, on account of the 
origin of its civilization, is to be considered a part of the " Greater 
Europe."] 



EUROPE AND CHRISTIANITY. 293 

this progressive diminution of the influence of the 
Church. 

What will become of Europe, if it does not return 
to the Catholic Church? 

Surely it will not become Protestant. What the 
most illustrious of French Protestant writers has said 
of his own country, 7 is equally certain of every 
country over which the breath of rationalism has 
passed. Once men have gone so far as to deny all 
mysteries, they will not retrace their steps to make 
an arbitrary choice between the mystery of the Trinity 
and that of transubstantiation. Either they will 
bend, in full and serious submission, to the yoke of 
the faith, when they are tired of the burdensome 
agitation of doubt ; or else they will turn away from 
the faith and keep their full independence. But 
they will not be inconsistent with themselves by tak- 
ing for their rule of faith a book that lends itself to 
differing interpretations and delivers from no uncer- 
tainty. Without any doubt, if what is now Catholic 
in Europe should lose the faith and if what has 
already lost the faith through the influence of ration- 
alism should not again become Catholic, all Europe 
would soon cease to be Christian. 

What religion then would be held ? A thousand 
voices are uplifted to say that the Christian religion 
is the last of religions, that after Christianity no 
teaching remains for man save philosophy and doubt. 

7 Guizot. 



294 THE WORSHIP OF MATTER. 

But philosophy can never be the religion of any great 
number. It is too uncertain in its principles, too 
subtle; in its deductions, too divided in its con- 
clusions. Its catechism is too misty to be the cate- 
chism of the common people. Its high priests have 
received their mission only from their talents or 
their presumption, and they lack that divine radiance 
with which men have always wished to see the brows 
of their priests encircled. So philosophy, even if it 
should succeed in setting itself up as a religion, would 
never be more than the religion of a small number, 
and even this small number would never form a 
Church, for each of them would depend on his own 
reason alone. 

What then is to become of Europe if it does not 
return to the Catholic Church ? Unhappily we are 
not reduced to simple guess-work in the matter. 
Facts give an answer to the question only too loudly. 
It will become what those peoples became which, 
after they had overthrown the foundation offered 
them by faith, would fain have rested the edifice of 
their prosperity on interest alone. They will lose 
what still remains of the Christian spirit. They will 
cast aside as superannuated superstitions every belief 
in God and in the future life, and they will conse- 
crate themselves entirely to the worship of material 
enjoyments. In the coming generations, already so 
softly bred, noble instincts will be more and more 
stifled by the excessive development of selfish instincts 



THE WORLD WITHOUT RELIGION. 295 

and sensual appetites. The strong virtues will become 
more and more rare. For yet a little time, perhaps, 
the universal tendency to comfort and well-being 
will keep in vogue a certain softness of manners, and 
will shield the people from the disturbances of 
violence. But the thirst of enjoyment will burn 
more and more strongly, whereas the means to satisfy 
it will be far from increasing in the same proportion. 
Industrial development will unavoidably bring along 
with itself the concentration of riches and the spread 
of wretchedness. The love of a God born in poverty 
will no longer hold in check the selfishness of the 
rich, and the hope of heaven will no longer be here 
to comfort the hearts of the poor and to stay their 
arm. Who can foresee the hatred and strife, the 
terrible revolutions, that will result from such a state 
of things, and who will find a remedy for such ills 
outside of religion ? 

So much for Europe. Let us now look out 
Upon the whole world. 

What will become of the world, if Europe loses 
ill religion? 

The world is destined, in every supposition, to 
undergo the influence of European civilization and 
to fashion itself on the same plan. With our civili- 
zation we may bear to the unbelieving and savage 
nations of the world a belief that is certain, simple, 
sublime, able to inspire and make easy every virtue; 
No. 2—5* 



296 CIVILIZED BARBARISM. 

and then we shall regenerate the world. For in the 
utter dearth of beliefs in which the world is found, 
such teaching is demanded by its utmost need. But 
with our industries we may bear to barbarous nations 
our doubts and our infidel reasonings ; and then they 
will take from our civilization only its dangers and 
not its advantages. We shall make all true progress 
impossible for them, and we shall condemn them, to 
the worst of all barbarism — the barbarism that is 
civilized. 

Among Christian nations every human feeling, 
the passions, the very vices, reach up toward the 
height to which faith has uplifted souls, just as the 
falsest systems reflect back the truths which they 
strive to combat. But it will not be so with the 
peoples which we shall draw from their present 
ignorance only to share with them our own errors. 
Whatever is great in our ideas will remain forever 
sealed to them ; but in return they will learn from us 
that refinement of crime which in their simplicity 
they knew not. That last remaining check which 
was imposed by their superstition on their passions, 
will fail before the influence of our scepticism. 
Nothing will come to take its place, and from this 
union of decrepit barbarism with a bastard civiliza- 
tion we shall see a birth of wickedness so monstrous 
and ferocity so prodigious that no century of the 
world's history has furnished an example of its like. 

Once again, all this is not mere guess-work. We 



MATERIAL WITHOUT MORAL PROGRESS. 297 

are only setting down what has happened whenever 
European influence has been brought to bear on 
savage and barbarous peoples, without calling in the 
aid of religion. This result can only become more 
general still in the measure that the points of contact 
between our civilization and barbarism become mul- 
tiplied, unl.ess religion is there to sanctify them. 

We have every right, therefore, to conclude that, 
if the world does not soon become Christian, it can 
scarcely fail of falling into a worse state than that in 
which it was at the coming of our Saviour. Such a 
state could be compared only to that civilization, 
refined but incurably corrupt, which seems to have 
preceded the deluge, when all flesh had corrupted its 
way upo?i the earth, and it repented God that He had 
made man on the earth? 

And this, almost without fail, would be the con- 
sequence of that violent movement which is impelling 
nations along the way of industrial undertakings, if 
the material progress were not accompanied by moral 
progress. This would be the goal of that well-defined 
tendency which is drawing the whole world toward 
a unity hitherto without example, should those who 
have the happiness of knowing the truth — instead of 
securing for truth the benefit of this tendency — allow 
their enemies to make use of it in leading the world 
to the fearful unity of doubt and error. 

Thus it is well proved that only the triumph 

8 Genesis, vi. 6, 12. 



298 IN THE CHURCH THE ONLY REMEDY. 

of the Church — the complete re-establishing of its 
benign influence over souls — can save Europe, and 
with Europe the entire world, from a barbarism so 
much the more to be feared as it will have at its dis- 
position the most irresistible material forces. For 
the scepticism which invades every quarter, for the 
cupidity whose fires burn stronger and stronger, for 
the hatred which divides the classes of society, for 
the opposition which is becoming ever more irrecon- 
cilable between the extremes of wealth and wretch- 
edness, for the dishonorable and insatiable selfishness 
of men, only the Church can furnish an effective 
remedy — in her divine faith, her undying hopes, and 
her exhaustless charity. Once more, this is the 
alternative opened before us. On the one side is 
life, the most abundant and prosperous and divine 
the earth has ever seen. On the other is death — 
death the most cruel and shameful, and which will be 
preceded by the anguish and heart-rendings of a 
frightful agony. 

Which of these two sides will society choose? 
God alone knows ; but we can at least give our help 
that the choice may fall on the side of life. Of 
course, in this supreme crisis, a great part must fall 
to those whom God has so highly honored by com- 
municating to them a share of His authority over His 
reasonable creatures. If the masters of the earth 
could but understand it, if all those who wield the 
i\vo r eld power of the sceptre and the pen, woulc 



SOULS AS VICTIMS. 299 

appreciate the responsibility weighing upon them — 
if, instead of consulting so often their selfish interests 
or their own wisdom, they would seek counsel from 
the thoughts of God and strive to follow the impulse 
given by Providence, the great Mover of human 
societies — how resistless would be their power, how 
pure and lasting their glory. And now, O ye kings, 
understand : receive instruction, you that judge the 
earth? It does not belong to us to make our voice 
heard by those whom God has lifted up so high. 
But we should offer sacrifices and shed tears and — 
were it needed — our blood, to obtain for them the 
graces necessary to the fulfilling of their high mission. 
The Saints acted after this manner in circumstances 
less critical. At so solemn a moment, when it should 
seem that the destiny of the world was to be decided, 
can it be possible there will not be found many 
devoted souls, in the cloister and in the world, who 
will offer themselves as pure victims for the triumph 
of the Church, the regeneration of society, and the 
salvation of the world? 
9 Psalm ii. io. 



300 THE PROPHECY OF EZECH1EL. 

III. 

Motives of fear changed to motives of hope by God's mercy — 
Conclusion of the Second Part. 

There is a prophecy of Ezechiel which seems 
written for the times in which we live. 10 In a single 
picture he sets before our eyes the sad consequences 
of our wanderings and the touching figure of God's 
mercies. We should strive to understand it, that we 
may grasp the secret of that wondrous transformation 
by which He changes our weightiest motives of fear 
into hope. 

How comforting is the teaching we receive from 
this mysterious picture, and what light it throws upon 
the past history of mankind, and its present condi- 
tion ! 

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and brought 
me forth in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in 
the midst of a plain that was full of bones : 

And He led me about through them on every side : 
now they were very many upon the face of the plain, 
and they were exceeding dry. 

And He said to me : Son of man, dost thou think 
these bones shall live? And I said : O Lord God, 
Thou knowest. 

And He said to me : Prophesy concerning these 
bones : and say to the?n : \e dry bones, hear the word 
of the Lord. 

10 xxxvii. I -1 4. 



THE PROPHECY. 301 

Thus saith the Lord God to these bones : Behold, 
I will send spirit into you, and you shall live. 

And I will lay sine7vs upon you, and will cause 
flesh to grow over you, and will cover you with skin : 
and I will give you spirit, and you shall live, and you 
shall know that I am the Lord. 

And 1 prophesied as He had commanded me : and 
as L prophesied there was a noise, and behold a com- 
motion : and the bones came together, each one to its 
joint. 

And I saw, and behold the sinews and the flesh 
came up upon them, and the skin was stretched out over 
them, but there was no spirit in them. 

And He said to me : Prophesy to the spirit, 
prophesy, O son of ?nan, and say to the spirit: Thus 
saith the Lord God : Co?ne, spirit from the four winds, 
and blow upon these slain, and let them live again. 

And 1 prophesied as He had commanded me : and 
the spirit came into them, and they lived : and they 
stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. 

And He said to me : Son of man, all these bones 
are the house of Lsrael : They say : Our bo7ies are 
dried up, and our. hope is lost, and we are cut off. 

Therefore prophesy, and say to them : Thus saith 
the Lord God : Behold, L will open your graves, and 
will bring you out of your sepulchres, O My people : 
and will bring you into the land of Lsrael. 

And you shall know that L a?n the Lord, when 
I shall have opened your sepulchres, and shall have 
brought you out of your graves, O My people : 



302 THE MEANING OF THE PROPHECY. 

And shall have put My spirit in you, and you shall 
live, and I shall make you rest upon your own land : 
and you shall know that I the Lord have spoken, and 
done it, saith the Lord God. 

First of all, it gives us to understand that the 
moral life of man must come to him from heaven. 
It is not enough that earth should give him sinews 
and flesh, and that the organs wherein his strength 
resides should be covered over by a smooth and fair- 
hued skin. The child of God must have a divine 
life, the life of the spirit — grace. Without it, material 
civilization, with all the mechanical arts which are its 
strength and the liberal arts which give it splendor 
and brilliancy, can never make aught else than 
beautiful corpses ; it will not bring forth societies 
that truly live. 

Secondly, the Prophet reminds us that God 
made the nations of the earth for health, and they may 
be healed even when they seem to have lost the very 
breath of life. 11 Here below, God's justice never acts 
alone. Mercy is its constant companion, even in its 
most appalling vengeance, and mercy holds itself ready 
to heal the wounds inflicted by the chastisement. 
Oftenest even, it is mercy that both holds the sword 
and strikes, in order to heal. Under its hand chas- 
tisements are changed to remedies ; and mercy casts 
the nations into the tomb only as the husbandman 
throws the grain of wheat into the earth, that it may 

11 Wisdom, i. 14. 



THE RESURRECTION OF SOCIETY. 303 

find there, in the midst of seeming decay, new 
energy. 

Yes, human societies in themselves are like 
physical nature. Alike in the two orders, God's 
goodness causes life to start up from the bosom of 
death, and He makes the fruitfulness of springtime 
follow on the barrenness of winter. When human 
societies are brougnt to bay and can hope nothing 
further from themselves, then God is pleased to come 
to their help. He makes the corpses to come forth 
from their tombs, raising up the driest bones. He 
makes the light of His truth to shine on those souls 
which have lost all — even the illusion of their errors. 
He renews to justice and strength and peace the peo- 
ple that lay inert in the corruption of every vice. It 
is thus He loves to make known His power, and to 
show that He is always the Lord, the Creator, 
Jehovah, the Principle of being and of life. 

But there is a condition to be fulfilled before 
these great miracles can be performed, before the 
Spirit may come from heaven and renew the face of 
the earth, before grace will come back to the souls 
which have lost it, before the peoples can be born 
again to life. It is necessary that this Spirit of God 
shall be called down by the voice of man. No doubt 
it is God Who sends It, but He makes use of the 
ministry of the sons of men. He seems to have 
denied Himself the power of working such wonders 
alone. And so, when He would raise up a society, 



304 THE CALLING OF AP'OSTLES. 

He begins by sending to it men of desires that call 
upon His Spirit with all the ardor of their zeal and 
sigh from their inmost heart for the salvation of 
their people. In that day, the Lord hath said, I will 
pour out upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit 
of grace and of prayers. These prayers shall rise up 
to heaven like great clouds that shall shower down the 
plenteous dew of grace. In that day there shall be a 
fountain opened to the house of David and the inhabit- 
ants of Jerusalem for the washing of the sinner and 
of the unclean woman — for purity and salvation. 12 

How beautiful is the calling of these forerunners 
of their age. They are for their own age what the 
Patriarchs were for the entire universe. What power 
is in these arrows of prayer which pierce the heavens 
and reach even to the Heart of God ! What merit 
is there in these sacrifices offered for the salvation of 
the world, whose virtue adds to the sacrifice of the 
Divine Redeemer a fruitfulness it would not have 
without them ! This mission which is so glorious is 
set before every Christian. To you who read this 
book it is proposed in a manner altogether special. 
Listen to the Heart of your God crying from the 
depths of His tabernacle, with the whole strength of 
His boundless love. Whom shall I send, and who 
will come forth for us ? It is for you to answer with 
the Prophet : Lo, here am /, Lord ; send me IZ 

12 Psalm ciii. 30; Daniel, ix. 23; Zacharias, xii. 10, xiii. I. 

13 Isaias, vi. 8. 



APPENDIX I. 

On the organization of the Apostleship of Prayer, 

• 
[The third part of Father Rami ere' s work, as already 
explained, concerned the practice of the Apostleship of Prayer ; 
and this is equivalently contained in the authorized Handbook, 
modified according to the later dispositions and published under 
the supervision of the Rev. Director General, at the offices of the 
various Messengers of the Sacred Heart. The earnest words 
which we add here as an Appendix, were written by Father 
Ramiere shortly after the final approval of the Statutes, in 1879.] 

Grace, like nature, goes forward with order in its 
creations. It causes its works to pass through dif- 
ferent periods, each of which has its own special end 
— different seasons, each with its own fruitfulness. 
The plant brings forth its flowers in the springtime 
and its fruit in autumn. The human body unfolds 
itself in the time of growth, but comes to its strength 
and ripe proportions only in youth and the ful- 
ness of manly age. So too, in the creations of the 
moral order, there are various seasons and divers 
ages. First they must grow and reach out ; but 
afterward they must organize themselves and become 
strong. If this second period should not follow on 
the first, a work which may have been most flourish- 
ing in its beginnings will soon come to languish. 
It will be like those plants which in the time of 
spring put forth a wondrous growth, and yet endure 
not the first cold blasts of winter. 

305 



306 THE FUTURE OF THE APOSTLESHIP. 

Is this to be the fate of the Apostleship of 
Prayer? After spreading in a few years to the ends, 
of the world, shall this work be doomed to disappear 
soon ? Whether of the two parables of the Gospel 
is to be realized in its case ? That of the house builf 
upon the sand, and the rain fell, and the floods came, 
and the winds blew and they beat upon that house, and 
it fell? Or that of the house built upon a rock, and 
the rain fell, and the floods ca?ne, and the winds blew 
and they beat upon that house, and it fell not, for if 
was founded on a rock ? l 

There are two ways of understanding this ques- 
tion. We may ask ourselves if the Apostleship of 
Prayer has in itself sufficient elements of solidity and 
durability, or whether an active enough use will be 
made of these elements, to allow of the work's with- 
standing those causes of destruction which threaten 
every human creation. 

It will be easy for us to answer the first of these 
questions. As to the second, we put it to our Asso- 
ciates, most of all to our Promoters and Directors. 
To them, quite as much as — even more than — to us, 
belongs the answer. 

1 St. Matthew, vii. 24-7. 



ITS WARRANT IN THE DEVOTION. 307 

I. 

i. Yes, surely, the Apostleship of Prayer has 
in itself all the elements of strength and duration ; 
they are the elements which Jesus Christ has 
implanted in the devotion to His Divine Heart. 
Our work, indeed, has never claimed for itself any 
other merit than that of bringing into light the true 
spirit of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and 
of making its practice easy. To its close union with 
this blessed devotion it acknowledges that all its past 
success has been due, and on this it founds its hopes 
for the future. Just so long as the words of the 
Apostle hold true, and in the Eucharistic tabernacle 
our Heavenly Mediator shall live to make intercession 
for us 2 — just so long as He shall there continue, by 
His apostleship of supplication and mystic sacrifice, 
the work which long ago He fulfilled by His apostle- 
ship of word and action and suffering — so long will 
true devotedness lead the friends of this Divine 
Saviour to make their own all His interests and His 
desires, and along with Him to pray and offer them- 
selves in sacrifice. Such a duty imposes itself on 
€very truly Christian heart, it has been put in prac- 
tice in every age by generous souls, and it needs only 
to be brought to mind to be accepted by all. 

The devotion to the Heart of Jesus has for its 
object, not alone the visible representations of this 
Heart, nor simply the material Heart of the Saviour, 

* Hebrews, vii. 25. 



308 ITS WARRANT IN G0D 7 S PROMISES. 

but His Heart living and loving and experiencing in 
our behalf feelings and desires and repulsions. It is 
clear that the practice of the devotion must also not 
limit itself to a few exterior signs of homage, but it 
must lead us to enter into the feelings of the Heart 
of Jesus, to share in Its sympathies and antipathies, 
and to give our help to the triumph of Its interests 
by the means always in our power — the union of our 
prayers with Its prayers. 

This is the chief root of our work, and the 
prime warrant of its vitality — its essential connection 
with the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. 

2. It finds another and an equally sure warrant 
in the promises made by God our Saviour to prayer, 
and in the conditions of the power of prayer. 

He that lieth not has bound Himself by oath 
to refuse us nothing which we may demand of Him 
in His name, especially if we ask it, not by ourselves 
alone, but many uniting together to put up the same 
petition. He has thus Himself pointed out two con- 
ditions that assure the power and efficiency of our 
prayers. They must be made in union with Himself, 
and by several Christians united together. Does not 
this already give us the idea of an association that 
would unite together a number of Christians to pray 
in union with Jesus Christ, and to entreat from God's 
goodness the graces which we know to be conform- 
able to our Saviour's desires ? Is not this accordingly 
the tracing out of the plan of the Apostleship of 



THE USE OF AN ASSOCIATION. 309 

Prayer ? Truly, our work is not different from this 
— an association whose members unite together to 
ask of God, in union with the Heart of Jesus, not 
that which is of use to each of themselves, but that 
which is most according to the desires of the Divine 
Heart. Manifestly, it would be impossible to realize 
more fully the words of our Divine Master. For 
praying in our Saviour's name is not a mere calling 
upon His name with the lips. It means to enter into 
the thoughts of the Saviour, and thus to direct our 
prayers to the work of the salvation of souls. Most 
assuredly, Christians did not wait for the creation of 
the Apostleship of Prayer before giving answer to the 
call implied in our Lord's words. A special associa- 
tion was not necessary to make it possible for us to 
gain the priceless advantages promised in the call. 
Yet an association could not but be of the very 
greatest use in making it easy for us to practise such 
an Apostleship, Just so long as prayer is the chief 
means of gaining grace and union with Jesus Christ 
is the essential condition of the power of our prayers, 
these two dogmas of our faith will furnish a solid 
foundation to the work which has for its special end 
to make known to Christians the Heart of Jesus 
pleading unceasingly along with them and urging 
them to pray without ceasing along with Him. 

3. The permanent needs and interests of the 
Church are a third warrant of duration for our work. 

These interests are of two kinds : the sanctifica- 



310 ITS WARRANT IN THE CHURCH'S NEED. 

tion of the souls already belonging to the body of the 
Church, and the conversion of those who are still 
strangers to her. Now, to secure this twofold inter- 
est of hers, the Church has but a single source of 
strength — grace — and a single labor — the apostleship. 
To spread grace among souls that are guilty in order 
to make them just, and among just souls to make 
them increase in justice — this is the twofold aim 
which the Church never ceases to pursue through her 
apostles. But before grace can be spread abroad 
among souls, it must be obtained from God ; and 
the abundance with which its life-giving waters come 
down from heaven will, of necessity, be the measure 
of the fulness with which they are to be poured out 
on earth. For the Church, therefore, it is of the 
highest moment that the exercise of the interior 
apostleship, which aims at obtaining grace, should 
accompany the exterior apostleship which aims at 
spreading it abroad. This second ministry is the 
privilege of a small number ; but the first is open to 
all. It is the duty of all , a duty of the first order — 
first of all, says St. Paul 3 — who seems to make 
dependent on its fulfilment the realization of the 
Almighty's design of bringing all men to be saved. 
But this duty, unhappily, is unknown, or at least for- 
gotten, by the greater number ; and so it is of the very 
greatest use that a special work should come to recall 
it unceasingly to all, and to make its fulfilment easy. 
8 1. Timothy, ii. 4. 



ITS WARRANT IN THE HEART OF JESUS. 311 

For we cannot doubt it — if all Christians prayed as 
they ought for the salvation of souls, the abundance 
of graces which this world-wide effort of prayer would 
bring down would renew the face of the earth. 
Hence it follows that so long as there are hearts 
devoted to the Church and zealous for the salvation 
of souls, the Apostleship of Prayer will find in them 
active promoters. 

4. Last of all, the prime warrant of stability 
for our work is given us by the infinite power and 
never-ceasing activity of the Heart of Jesus. 

For without ceasing is the labor of this Divine 
Heart. By the Spirit of God, the fulness of Which 
it has and Which from It is poured forth on all just 
souls, It exercises over such souls a constant influ- 
ence. Along what lines does It act ? Whitherward 
does It impel souls? Toward the three things 
which make up the essence of our work — toward 
prayer and zeal and union. Toward prayer— for, 
praying unceasingly for us, Jesus stirs us to pray 
always with Him, at least by our intention : We 
ought always to pray, and not to faint} Toward zeal 
— for He will not have us bound our cares to our own 
interests alone ; but He desires that, as true children 
of God,, we should take to heart the interests of our 
Heavenly Father, the hallowing of His name, the 
coming of His kingdom, the doing of His will oix 
earth as in heaven. And last, toward union — for 

4 St. Luke, xviii 1. 
No. 2—6 



312 THE SPREAD OF THE ASSOCIATION. 

this was the last wish He uttered in our behalf to 
God His Father, on the eve of His death, and He 
ceases not still to offer it to Him : That they all 
may be one, as Thou Father in Me, and I in 
Thee, that they also may be one in Us. This 
is beyond all doubt : until the end of ages the 
Heart of Jesus will impel, with all the might It 
has, souls docile to Its action to unite with each 
other by a perfect blending of their own inter- 
ests and feelings and desires and prayers, with 
His prayers, desires, feelings, interests ; and since 
the Apostleship of Prayer has for its sole aim to bring 
about this union, we may be assured that the first 
Promoter and chief Propagator of our work shall be? 
until the end of ages, the Sacred Heart of Jesus Itself. 

This is the true explanation — the only valid 
explanation — of the rapid spread of this work and the 
spontaneous springing up of other works born of the 
same thought. On every side associations of prayers 
in union with the Sacred Heart of Jesus have been 
established — local unions for a city or a diocese, a 
national league for France, associations of prayers 
for Russia, England, Africa. All these works spring 
from the same root, all are designed to realize the 
desires of the Heart of Jesus, and consequently all 
are sure of His help. For ourselves, we have always 
made it our duty to encourage and help on and spread 
them all ; and we have willingly seen them borrow 

5 St. John, xvii. 21. 



THE APOSTLESHIP, A UNIVERSAL UNION. 313 

our own formulas and ways of proceeding.* In their 
case, the Divine Heart of Jesus accepts the aid given 
to the realizing of some few of Its desires. How 
much the more pleasing ought it not be to Him that 
we should take up in one all His divine interests, 
without reserve of any? These other works bring 
together certain members of His mystical body to 
help certain needs of this body, and they can count 
on the support of its Divine Head. How much the 
more sure of such support is that work which tends 
to make all the members work together for the 
increase of the whole body? These particular unions 
realize this aim in part. But how much the more 
perfectly is it not realized by a universal union which 
embraces all the faithful in its ranks, and all the 
desires of Jesus Christ in its end and aim. And, in 
truth, what Jesus Christ asked for His servants 
was not different unions, but one only union that 
should reach out to all and receive all into 
itself: — that they may be one in Us. 6 

* [It is well to remark here, against an unfortunate confu- 
sion of quite different works, that the Apostleship of Prayer has 
never united itself with any particular union or confraternity, nor 
could it do so without violating the canon law that governs simi- 
lar associations in the Church and invalidating the Indulgences 
granted. Members of any pious society or community can be 
received in the Apostleship, either as simple Associates or Pro- 
moters, but they must be received singly, and the Apostleship 
has no approved or organized existence in the Church except as 
the one League of the Sacred Heart ] 

6 St. Tohn, xvii. 21. 



314 OUR CO-OPERATION NEEDED. 

II. 

Yes, we are sure of the all-powerful support of 
the Sacred Heart of Jesus, if we labor at thus uniting 
Christian hearts together by the blending of their 
interests with His own. And how could He refuse 
to help on, with all His power, those who seek only 
to realize His desires? Can His power be used for 
aught else than the realizing of His own designs? 
He would be in contradiction with Himself, did He 
not co-operate with those whom He Himself calls to 
work along with Him ! 

The co-operation of the Heart of Jesus is thus 
certainly ours. But can He count in like manner on 
our co-operation with Him? The work of the 
Apostleship of Prayer is clearly according to His own 
desires, and it answers well to the needs of the 
Church besides giving an unfailing power to our own 
prayers. But shall it find, in every part of Christen- 
dom, active and zealous Promoters to keep alive the 
good it has already done and to put it in a condition 
to do yet more ? 

The light of experience has now rendered it 
easy for us to point out the conditions to be fulfilled 
if our work is to bear everywhere the blessed fruits 
which it has already brought forth in some places. 

i. It is necessary, first of all, that God should 
inspire some person of influence with favorable dis- 



PATRONS AND HELPERS. 315 

positions toward the work and with the desire of 
working to spread it. 

These dispositions will not always be found in 
the quarters where assistance was hoped for. With 
some persons, who are otherwise prudent and zealous, 
the exceeding multiplicity of new works is a peremp- 
tory motive for rejecting this along with all others, 
without even making inquiry if it has any special 
claim on their good-will. It will also happen, more 
than once, that some will condemn this work on 
false appearances, without seeking after accurate 
ideas concerning it in the authorized publications 
which lay down its doctrinal basis. The devotion to 
the Sacred Heart of Jesus has had too much experi- 
ence of such opposition to make it a matter of 
astonishment or complaint, when we see that our 
own work is marked with the same seal. 

But the Heart of Jesus will not fail to join 
consolations to the trials, of which He will not 
deprive works that are dear to Him. Often, from 
the most unexpected quarter, He will raise up 
devoted helpers. Sometimes this will come from the 
stirring of His interior impulses ; at other times, 
souls lowly and powerless of themselves will obtain 
by their earnest entreaties and pious importunity the 
assistance of powerful patrons. They will not suffer 
themselves to be driven back by a first refusal ; they 
offer the book of the Apostleship of Prayer and they 
gain a reading for it. Usually nothing more is nee- 



316 PROMOTERS AMONG THE FAITHFUL. 

essary. The moment that its main idea has fastened 
on the attention, the mind is taken by its simplicity 
and greatness. Thus in every country of the world, 
pious prelates, influential priests, religious of every 
order, and zealous missionaries have come forward of 
their own accord to spread the work around them. 

2. Their success has been all the easier as they 
have lost no time in finding among the simple faith- 
ful devoted and working Promoters. 

This is the second condition of growth for the 
Apostleship of Prayer ; and this condition, happily, 
it is not difficult to fulfil. Wherever the Heart of 
Jesus is known and loved, souls are found who will 
not be content with honoring Him for their own 
sake, but aspire to the honor of spreading the worship 
of the Sacred Heart. Fire always spreads J but, more 
than any other flame, that which consumes the Sacred 
Heart tends to spread itself abroad, and every soul 
that is enkindled with its heat feels the need of 
sharing it with others. As soon as we truly love this 
Divine Heart, we desire to find friends for It ; and, 
since the Apostleship of Prayer has this for its sole 
aim, we are only too happy to make use of the easy 
means it furnishes for this purpose and to devote our- 
selves to spreading its work. 

Nothing more is needed for the organization of 
the work and for assuring its stability. A certain 
number of Promoters, men or women, gather round 
a zealous priest, all stirred with the high ambition of 



MEN AS PROMOTERS. 317 

glorifying the Sacred Heart of Jesus and of helping 
to realize Its desires. At least once each month they 
meet together to agree on the means they are to 
take, the dangers they must avoid, the useful works 
they are to help on. It is impossible that the Sacred 
Heart should 'find such instruments so ready for Its 
work, and should not make use of them in carrying 
out the designs of His love. 

We have spoken of men among the Promoters, 
as well as women. It would be, indeed, a mistake 
to imagine that this association is only for the weaker 
sex. The Heart of Jesus — the tenderest of hearts — 
is also the strongest ; and the devotion of which It is 
the object is ^a manly devotion. When it takes the 
form of devotedness — and this is the peculiar char- 
acter of the Apostleship of Prayer — this devotion 
becomes yet more fitted to the needs and tendencies 
of pious Christian men. Who is the man, truly 
pierced through by the love of Jesus Christ, who 
could believe himself dispensed, because he is a man, 
from entering into a League formed for the defence 
of the interests of this Divine Saviour and for the 
realization of His desires ? 

Thus the Apostleship of Prayer will be perfectly 
organized and will bring forth all its fruits, only 
where there is the harmonious action of Councils of 
Promoters, men and women, in which the men and 
women rival each other's earnest devoted ness in 
carrying out the Sacred Heart's designs of constant 



318 THE THREE DEGREES. 

mercy to all the souls redeemed by His precious 
blood. 

3. The most earnest desire of this Heart so 
loving is to be loved. So the first duty of the Pro- 
moters, men or women, is to gain to the Sacred 
Heart many friends. They apply themselves there- 
fore to increasing the number of those who honor 
the Sacred Heart, not only by exterior practices, but 
by sincere devotedness to Its interests. For this 
purpose the Apostleship of Prayer offers them its 
Three Degrees. 

To induce the greatest possible number of Christ- 
ians to make the interests of the Sacred Heart their 
own, at least by the daily Morning Offering [First 
Degree], is already something. This simple practice 
may even have a very considerable result, for all 
theologians teach that it can be sufficient to give to 
all the works of the day, and consequently to the 
entire life of thone who practise it daily, the excellent 
merit of charity and the apostolic power of zeal. 

Yet it is to be feared that its very easiness lays 
it open to the danger of being forgotten. So the 
Promoters — men or women — will do their best to 
persuade their Associates to unite with this daily 
Offering the recitation of the Decade of the Beads 
[Second Degree]. Besides its intrinsic merit, this 
practice has a triple value. It secures for us, before 
the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the all-powerful intercec 
sion of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It frees us^ 



THE ORGANIZATION OF BANDS. 319 

by its monthly renewal of our intention, from the 
danger of routine. Last of all is the still more 
priceless advantage to be derived from the organiza- 
tion into Bands of fifteen and the monthly distribu- 
tion of the Tickets, which keep up the life of the 
work by establishing constant communication among 
its members. 

The same results, in yet larger measure, will be 
obtained if, over and above the simple decade of the 
Beads, there is adopted as a means of organization 
the Communion of Reparation, either weekly or 
monthly [Third Degree]. Among all the practices 
of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, there is 
surely none .that better realizes devotedness to the 
interests of this Divine Heart, and none consequently 
that should be dearer to the Promoters and Associates 
of the Apostleship of Prayer. 

This, therefore, is the question which we now 
put to the devoted Christians, the zealous priests, the 
religious and the missionaries who until this day have 
given so generous a co-operation to the Heart of 
Jesus. Do they find in what they have done for Him 
a reason for repose, or do they not rather see a 
motive for laboring with renewed earnestness ? The 
exceeding great reward which He has in store for 
them because of past services ought to stir their 
ambition and move them to merit a yet greater- 
recompense. They have won over to Him many- 
friends; but how much greater still is the number 
No. 2—6* 



320 THE OFFERING OF THE APOSTLESHIP. 

of hearts that love Him not ? He has the right to 
win their love ; and, if it is in our power to gain 
some of these hearts to Him, can we refuse it? 
Since the day when we entered His service, He has 
showered ever new blessings on us, and they make 
Him worthy of allour thanks. Then too the Church 
is attacked by new dangers that make our Apostleship 
more than ever necessary. Is there not more than 
one soul whose loss we might have hindered by more 
fervent prayers? How many, at this very moment, 
are leaping into the abyss of hell? Yet we might 
prevent their fall by multiplying the number of those 
who would pray and offer themselves in sacrifice for 
their salvation. 

We ought then to redouble our zeal in spreading 
and organizing in every place this Apostleship of the 
Sacred Heart of Jesus ; and that our efforts may be 
more fruitful, we will beseech this Divine Heart to 
aid us with the all-powerful help of Its grace. 
The Morning Offering of the Apostleship. 

Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, 
I offer Thee the prayers, work, and sufferings of this 
day, for all the intentions of Thy Divine Heart, in 
union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. 

1 offer them, in particular, for the spread and 
permanence of the work which has for its aim to 
give Thee as many apostles as there are Christians. 
O Jesus, increase in every class of society the num- 
ber of these apostolic souls, who will aid Thee to 



I 

THE LEAGUE OF THE SACRED HEART. 321 

scatter over the earth the fire with which Thou 
desirest to see it enkindled. Amen. 

[The Apostleship of Prayer, as organized and approved in 
the Church, is best known by the name of League of the Sacred 
Heart — the title chosen for it by Father Ramiere and used in the 
briefs of the Sovereign Pontiffs (28 May, 1879, 2 4 August, 1884). 
It is not a confraternity or sodality, nor is it subject to the restric- 
tions of such societies nor even included in any dispensation 
regarding their establishment. It is a " Pious Work " [opus 
J>i'um), to which the mutual union of its members is an essential 
of its existence. It is on a canonical footing similar to that of 
the Propagation of the Faith — of which Pius IX. called it a 
-sister-work — and of the Holy Childhood. It has a Cardinal 
Protector, who designates, with the special blessing of the Sover- 
eign Pontiff, the General Intentions proposed to its united prayers. 
It is governed, subject to the approved Statutes and the decisions 
of the Sacred Roman Congregations, by a Director General 
nominated by the Father General of the Society of Jesus and 
confirmed by the Pope. In the different countries, he delegates 
Head or Central Directors, usually in connection with the Mes- 
seiigers of the Sacred Heai't, the official periodical organ of the 
work ; and these sign the diplomas of aggregation, of Local 
Directors and Promoters, in his name, and issue the necessary 
publications of the work and whatever other articles are con- 
nected with its approved working. The names of all Local 
Centres thus established are transmitted to the General Director 
each year. It has been forbidden by the Sacred Congregation, 
that others than the Head Directors delegated for this purpose 
.-hould print or give out the Certificates of Admission or the 
other publications of the work (24 May, 1867, 2 June, 1880). 
Also, the name Apostleship of Prayer cannot validly be joined 
with that of confraternities or other pious associations in their 
publications (7 June, 1879), nor has any confraternity of the 



322 THE LEAGUE OF THE SACRED HEART, 

Sacred Heart or pious union or society of any kind ever enjoyed 
such a privilege, which would entail the destruction of the union 
of mutual prayer. The practice of the First Degree — the daily 
Morning Offering — is an essential condition for the gaining of 
the Indulgences or privileges, or for sharing in the Mutual 
Prayer, by the Associates. The Bands of the Second Degree 
are essential to the organization of the League in a Local Centre 
by the Promoters. Where religious communities become Centres 
of the League^ it is necessary that each member should be 
admitted singly. These points are mentioned here to guard 
against a common misunderstanding ; a full explanation of the 
very simple but effective working of the League is found in the 
authorized Handbook. ~\ 



APPENDIX II. 

[See Page <p6-<py.) 

As the organized Apostleship of Prayer has gone on grow- 
ing and developing itself under the hand of Providence, it has 
taken on more and more the character of a League of Mutual 
Prayer. This has brought it home to the hearts of many ( hris- 
lians, especially since the various Messengers of the Sacred Heai't 
began publishing each month the reports of " Thanksgivings for 
Graces obtained," sent in by grateful Associates. This seems to 
render necessary some special explanation of what is meant by 
"answers to prayer." The teachings, not only of Christianity 
but of natural religion as well, declare the action of a particular 
Providence of God in answer to the prayers of His creatures. 
Many facts might be merely natural coincidences. Yet the eye 
of faith would see in them probable instances of the particular 
Providence with which God watches over all His rational 
creatures. It is this particular Providence we especially have a 
right to expect in answer to the prayers of ourselves or others. 
And when the Providence is so extraordinary as to be a direct 
answer to prayer, we are not therefore to call it a miracle ; nor 
should any Christian, nor indeed anyone who believes in the 
good God, consider it as anything out of the usual line of His 
Providence. 

This requires some brief explanation — first, of what the 
Providence of God means — then how this Providence works 
in the line of spiritual graces — and finally how all this differs 
from the miracle in the physical order and from extraordinary 
graces in the spiritual order. 

Our Lord Himself has told us in a plain and simple manner 
in His parables, what the particular Providence of God over us 
is like. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing ? and not one 
of them shall fall to the ground without your Father. But the 

323 



324 PROVIDENCE AND NATURAL RELIGION. 

very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore : 
better are you than, many sparrows. 1 

I. 

As we have said, natural religion teaches the truth in 
question. It belongs to the elementary belief in God that we 
-should recognize His Fatherly Providence ; otherwise all prayer 
becomes impossible. Moreover, if the answer to prayer were to 
be in all cases a miracle, prayer would present itself to the minds 
of most men as something presumptuous. For to miracles man 
never becomes accustomed, since indeed, in God's plan, they 
never become customary. It is this confusion between the idea 
of the miracle, which all C hristians hold to be of rare occurrence, 
and the answer to prayer, which all who believe in God should 
hold to be an ordinary occurrence, that so many infidel writers 
have used to their own profit in recent controversy. 2 

In physical nature the regular movement of things forms an 
unbroken sequence of cause and effect, according to constant 
laws. Thus the lightning strikes in one place, and not in another, 
according to laws governing the discharge of the electricity which 
has been generated. But even in physical nature there is an 
activity, which cannot indeed interfere with these constant laws, 
but can seriously interfere with their application. This is not 
done by suspending their exercise so that the electricity which 
had been generated from the clouds should not be discharged at all, 
but by directing the forces of nature. The agent of this direc- 
tion is the free will of man. guided by his reason. He has 
discovered the use of the lightning-rod, and — no matter what the 
necessity of the laws of nature may be— by setting up his light 
ning-rod he can determine, in a certain degree, just how the 
electricity shall be discharged. 

This is not a miracle. It is simply an instance of man's 

*St. Matthew, x. 29-31. 

2 Professor Tyndall has furnished many notable examples. 



PROVIDENCE NOT A MIRACLE. 325 

free will, guided by his intelligence, directing natural forces. 
Every time that a man moves his arm through space or lifts a 
stone from the ground, he is interfering in this directive manner 
with the laws of nature. He cannot lift up the stone with any 
greater outlay of strength than he finds ready to his use in the 
muscles of his arm. In other words, he does not introduce any 
new force into nature ; but his free will simply directs how these 
forces shall be applied, instead of leaving them to that unchanging 
physical order of cause and effect, which is instanced when the 
stone detached by wind and water rolls down the mountain side. 

But man's free will is not the only agent which thus directs 
the forces of nature When God created the world and placed 
rational creatures in it, the order o f the universe was not limited 
to the action of the necessary laws of matter God's Providence 
over His rational creatures came into play, not by a miracle, but 
as an ordinary every day occurrence. In this way, simply out of 
His fatherly love of His creatures, God's free will that is, His 
foreseeing I rovidence, directs the forces of nature in this way 
rather than another. 

Thus it may happen that, through a simple disposition of 
natural causes, a man is released from some calamity because 
Providence has so disposed ; whereas he would have been the 
victim of the calamity according to the physical relations of cause 
and effect in inanimate nature. 

This, we repeat, is not a miracle. No new force is intro- 
duced among natural agents. Simply the application of natural 
forces is guided and applied by a free will, which is outside of 
material nature. 

This Providence of God, we are bound to believe if we 
believe in God at all, is exercised even independently of prayer 
For God does not throw into a universe of blind necessity His 
rational creatures endowed with free will, and then leave them 
to themselves. This is recognized by the human mind as soon 
as it recognizes the existence of God. And the first sign of 



326 PROVIDENCE AND CHRISTIAN TEACHING. 

belief in God on the part of man is shown by his lifting up his 
soul to Him as to a Father, and demanding the help of His 
Providence by prayer. 

In fact, the ordinary answer to prayer consists simply, so 
far as temporal favors are concerned, in this direction given to 
the things of time. Let us take as an example the case of a 
disease that, left to itself, might prove fatal. A skilful physician, 
using his free will guided by his skill and experience would 
bring to bear such natural forces as would counteract the disease 
and restore the man to health. Providence might do the same, 
either of Itself or in answer to prayer, by giving the forces of 
nature a direction in one line of action rather than another. 

II. 

When we come to consider the great light which Christian- 
ity has shed on God's Providence over man, we see how confi- 
dence in a particular Providence, as an ordinary and not a 
miraculous element of our life here below, is a part of our very 
religion. 

C hristianity tells us, indeed, that God so loved the world as 
to give His only begotten Son : that whosoever believeth in Him 
may not perish but ?nay have life everlasting? The fatherly 
love, therefore, which God has for us in the present order of 
things is entirely directed to the salvation of our souls. We are 
bound to believe that this Providence over us is an ordinary thing, 
giving us in answer to our prayers such temporal and spiritual 
favors as may be necessary to our salvation, and ever waiting 
upon us through all our path of life. 

In the well-known case of a soldier whose life has been 
protected in battle by a medal of the Blessed Virgin, the result 
may be attributed simply to the natural coincidence of a bullet 
flattening itself against a metallic disc or medal, which the free 
will of a human being had sewed in the soldier's garments. It 

8 St. John, iii. 16. 



PROVIDENCE NOT EXTRAORDINARY. 327 

may be also attributed, though of course without certainty (for 
the Providence of God is not a revelation) to the particular 
Providence of God, which in answer to the prayers of a devoted 
Christian — prayers which He has promised shall never be left 
unheard — watched carefully over the welfare of the soldier at 
the moment when his salvation was at stake. ' To consider it as 
a miracle or as something approaching the marvellous, and not 
rather belonging to the ordinary life of Christians, is to misunder- 
stand the whole Christian idea of the relations of the soul with 
God its Father. 

This will be still more clearly understood, if we show what 
God really does when he works a miracle, or when in the spiritual 
order He gives one uf those extraordinary graces which are 
equivalent to miracles in the physical order. 

In a miracle the forces of nature are simply suspended or 
superseded, by God., Who is their absolute Master. The lightning 
actually strikes, for example, but does not injure. Or, again, the 
disease is evidently unto death, the body is already in dissolution, 
yet without the intervention of any natural remedy or any dis- 
position of natural forces — suddenly and without any possible 
tause, except the will of the Creator — the person is restored to 
health. Such miracles may be asked for in prayer, and, all 
things considered, they are not infrequently obtained by Christians. 
But these miracles are never expected with that fulness of con- 
fidence which belongs to ordinary prayer. 

So too with the souls of men. In His ordinary Providence, 
God has bound Himself to give every man having the use of 
reason certain actual graces. These graces enlighten his soul 
concerning the religious ideas he already has, and they attract 
his will to follow them. But if a person has no religious ideas 
at all and God should reveal definite ideas of religion to his mind, 
there would be an extraordinary operation quite like that of a 
miracle or a prophecy. It would be a true and supernatural 



328 ANSWERS TO PRAYER. 

revelation. This we do not look for as an ordinary occurrence 
among men. 

Yet the very first idea of prayer, as Cardinal Newman 
remarks in the example of the child that has grievously offended 
its parents and prays God to take away from their minds the 
sting and memory of the wrong, tells us what God's ordinary 
work in souls is like.- Without any extraordinary action God 
can change the state of mind of a human being, quite as much 
in an ordinary way as when a person of discretion changes the 
whole trend of thought and temper of another by giving good 
advice or useful information. If God did not in His Providence 
thus turn the minds of men, by bringing back to them what they 
already know and attracting their wills to what has already been 
presented to them as good, then the whole Christian idea of 
prayer would fail. When Christians pray, as they do constantly, 
for favors both temporal and spiritual, it is far from their minds 
that they are asking for anything extraordinary or miraculous 
They are simply treating with God as their Father, in a manner 
perfectly analogous with that of the child treating with its parents 
here on earth. 

It is unpleasant to recognize that the confusion of ideas so 
prevalent outside of the Church on this matter should sometimes 
have made its way even among intelligent Catholics. 

From the beginning it has been in the special line of the 
Apostleship of Frayer, and of all its Messengers of the Sacred Heart. 
to renew among Christians that childlike confidence and easiness 
of communication with God which belongs to the life of faith. 
It is an essential part of the Apostleship of Prayer, to accustom 
souls to habits of prayer ; and this part of its work has been 
blessed in explicit terms by the two last Sovereign Pontiffs, Its 
lesson for us is that we are to gird up our loins for the good fight, 
which will perhaps endure long, to prevent the introduction of 
the spirit and ideas of an unbelieving world among the children 

4 Grammar of Assent, on Conscience. 



WORDS OF LEO XIII. 32& 

of the good God, Who answers their prayers because He is their 
Father Who is in heaven. 

Leo XIII., in the remarkable Letters Apostolic with which, 
shortly after his coronation, he welcomed to his protection the 
Associates of the Apostleship of Prayer and, by name, the 
Messenger of the Saereci Heart, refers this indeed, not to the 
individual alone, but to prayers for all human society. 

" To reach your end you endeavor to place before the eyes 
of the faithful the exhaustless riches of the charity of this Divine 
Heart. Thus they may gather new strength for the more earnest 
offering of all their prayers, so far as they are able, with the per- 
petual pleadings of that Most Sacred Heart, that through It they 
may finally obtain that which they desire and expect. We rejoice 
that your design has proved attractive to the piety of the faithful, 
and that your Messengers published in many languages have 
found you numberless readers. This will of necessity bring 
about the spread of devotion to the Sacred Heart, and will 
strengthen faith and charity. It cannot but be fruitful for the 
salvation of the people. It will hasten the day of mercy." 



INDEX. 



[This Index refers only to the main doctrinal topics and 
Scriptural texts developed at some length in the course of the 
work; it is supplemented by a few references to the very 
excellent treatment of the same subjects by the Catechism 
of the Council of Trent. It is designed chiefly for the use of 
those who have to prepare instructions for others.] 

A. 

Abnegation, of self in spiritual things — a condition of interior 

peace, 220, /. Cor., Hi. 22-3. 
Apostasy, of Judas, 16; Arius, Luther Calvin, Voltaire, 29; 
[a sign of the times, 286] ; of educated Catholics, 293 ; 
consequences, 295. 
Apostleship 9 a co-operation with Providence in saving men, 
13; twofold, of word and prayer, ib. t 62; a duty of every 
Christian, 32, 310. 
Apostleship of Prayer, its nature, 40; end, 178; rela- 
tion with devotion to the Sacred Heart, 18 1 ; in the Blessed 
Sacrament, 170, Hebr., vii. 23; its effective power, 73; 
objection from sinner's free will, 77 ; 

Organization as a League. 96, 313, 321 ; approbation, 321 % 

its Three Degrees, 318 ; Promoters and their Councils,. 

316; Directors, 315; relation with other works, 312; 

with Propagation of the Faith, 140, 260, 262. 

Association, natural, 128; supernatural, 131, St. John, xvii. 

21 (see Communion of Saints) ; example in Catholic 

Church, 129. 

331 



332 INDEX. 



B. 



Denevolence, love of, or good- will (see Charity). 
Dlessedness, accidental, of elect in heaven, communicated to 

each other, 252. 
Briefs , Papal, concerning Apostleship, referred to, 321. 



Calvin, blasphemy of, refuted, 10. 

Catholic Church, the mystical body of Christ, 244, Ephes. % 
v. ; grace, her life, 246 ; prayer, her great need, 253 ; 
[summary of present condition, 286]. 

Charity, the love of friendship, defined, 183 ; distinguishes 
devotion to the Sacred Heart, ib.; reason of merit, 200, 
I. St. John, iv. 16 ; for our neighbor, 203 ; its law, the basis 
of society, 227; in Apostleship, 186, 205, 231. C. C. T., 
III., The Fourth Commandment 

Christians, one body with Christ, 153, St. John, xv.; the bond 
of unity, the indwelling Holy Spirit, 162, Romans, viii. 11. 

Communion, Holy (see Eucharist). 

Communion of Saints, its meaning, 250; kinds of super- 
natural good communicated, 255. C. C. T., I., ISinth 
Article. 

Confidence, the first condition of the power of prayer, 106, 
St. Matthew, xxi. 22, St. James , i. 6, 7. C. C. T,, IV., on 
Prayer. 

Conversions, in answer to united prayer, 96, St. James, v. 16. 

D. 

Devotion, [spread of, a sign of the times, 286] ; (see Sacred 

Heart). 
Doctrinal exposition of religion, need of, Preface, x. ; nature, 

id., xii. 



INDEX. 333 

E. 

Elect, small number of, due to free will, 16; and to lack of 

co-operation of Christians, 27, Ecclus, xvii. 12. 
Enemies of the Church, union of, 132. 
Eucharist, the Food of the divine life of Christians, 166, St. 

John, vi. ; centre of devotion to the Sacred Heart, 169; 

union with, in Apostleship of Prayer, 170, Hebr. vii. 25. 

C. C. T., II., effects of Eucharist. 
Europe [civilization] and Christianity, 293. 

F. 

Faith, (see Confidence and Propagation of ) . 
Families, evils of, remedied by prayer, 240. 
Freemasons, [organization of, 137; a sign of the times, 

286]. 

Free will (see Will). 

G. 

Grace, described, 45 •, the beginning of glory, 46 ; the life of 
souls, 50 ; actual and sanctifying, 51 ; how obtained, 53, 
58; actual grace and the sinner's prayer, 82 ; (see Com- 
munion of Saints). C. C. T., IV., " Thy Kingdom come." 

H. 

Holy GJlOSt, the soul of Christ's mystical body, 160; union 

with soul of Christian, 163 note. C. C. T., L, Eighth 

Article, " gifts." 
Humanity and the Incarnation, 156, St. John, i. 16. 
Humility, second condition of the power of prayer, 109, St. 

Ja?nes, iv. 6. 

I. 
Immaculate Conception, [devotion to, a sign of the 

times, 282] ; hopes from definition of dogma, 284, 287. 
Incarnation (see Humanity) ; continuation of, in the Church, 

245, St. John, xv., Ephes., iv. 11- 2. 



334 INDEX. 

Industrial progress, its danger to souls and the remedy, 239. 
Intentions, [recommended to the Apostleship organized as 
a League, 96, 283 ; how answered, 323]. 



lesus Christ, (see Incarnation) ; the Vine and Its branches, 
155, St. John, xv. ; His life of prayer, 100 ; in the Eucha- 
rist, 170, Hebr. vii. 25 ; union with, ibj, 185, St. John, 
xvii., Phi lip. , ii. j (see Sacred Heart) ; co operation with, 
by Apostleship, 34, 188. 

Joseph, St , devotion to, a reason of hope for the Church, 
282, 288. 

Oust souls, the prayer of, 81 ; and the Church, 248. 

L. 

Law, of Mutual Influence, 21 ; of charity, 183, 216, 229. 
League (see Apostleship — organization). 

Love, twofold, of God, benevolence and concupiscence, 184, 
202, 216; of neighbor, 203 (see Charity). 

M. 

Mary, prayer of, 99, 112, 318 (see Immaculate Conception). 
Merit, described, 197 ; kinds of, 81 ; how regained, 199; how 

increased, 200. C. C. T, II., efficacy of I enance. 
Messenger of the Sacred Heart, Preface, vii., [96, 283]. 
Miracles, due to prayer, 72, 217 ; [distinguished from ordinary 

Providence in answer to prayer, 326]. 
Missionaries (see Propagation of the Faith) ; vocations of,. 

260. 
Mutual Influence (see Law). 

N. 

Naturalism, [a sign of the times, 286]. 



INDEX. 335 



o. 



Offering , daily Morning, First Degree and essential practice 
of Apostleship, 318; merit from, 198. 



Peace, good of, 219; how lost, 220; remedy, 224. 

Penance, nature and power of, 209 ; by the Apostleship, 21 1. 

Perseverance, its warrant in the Apostleship of Prayer, 268, 
St. Matthew, xxv. 34-6. 

Prayer, described, 53 ; a co-operation with God, 60 ; infalli- 
ble power of, 74, St. Mark, xi. 24, St. John, xiv. 13 ; con- 
ditions of, 106; vital organs of, in Church, 254; (see 
jesus Christ, Mary, Apostleship). C. C. T., IV. 

Progress, and prayer, 236, 239 

Providence, ways of, with the Church, 284 ; in answer to 
prayer, 72, 214, [323]. C. C. T., IV., "Thy Kingdom 
come." 

R. 

Meparatton, Communion of, Third Degree of Apostleship, 

319. 

Jtosary decade, daily, Second Degree, and chief means of 
organization of Apostleship, 318. 

s. 

Sacred Heart* true devotion, 181 ; distinct from outward 
signs and practices, 183, 107 ; realized in the Apostleship of 
Prayer, 186, 308 ; activity of, 311 ; friends of, 316, St. John, 
xvii. 21. 

Salvation, God's desire for all men, [3], 5, /. Tim. it. 

Satisfaction, nature and kinds of, 209. C. C. T. f II., Pen- 
ance. 

Sinners, power of their prayers, 8^, 
Ko. 2 — 7 



336 INDEX. 

Society 9 its three bases, 227 ; remedy of its evils, 232, /. Cor. 

Hi. 
Soul, grace the life of, 46, 50, I. Cor. ii. 14; the Holy Spirit 

dwelling in, 161, Ephes., iv. 24; interior life, 172, 254; 

zeal for souls, 266, St. Mark, ix. 40. 
Supernatural act, what, 198; twofold motive of, 202; 

kinds of supernatural good, 255. 

T. 

Trinity, and man, 124; and prayer, 68, 217; union with, 

185, St. John, xvii. 

w. 

Will, free, and grace, 1 6, 24, 77 ; fervor of, 206. 

Z. 

Zeal, spirit of, 231, 262, 319. 



GENERAL CONTENTS. 

Page 

Editor's Notice v-xiii 

Introduction — Why the world is not yet Christian 

(Analysis, i-iv) I 

FIRST PART. 

On the Nature of the Apostleship of Prayer, and the 
Sources of its Power. 

The Apostleship of Prayer — A League of the Heart 

of Jesus 39 

Chapter I. 

First source of power — JPrayer. 

Analysis, i-x . 41 

The Apostleship's power from prayer 43 

i. Grace, the life of the soul 45 

ii. The power of prayer to obtain grace, drawn from 

the very nature of grace 53 

iii The power of prayer for obtaining the graces neces- 
sary to our neighbor 58 

iv. The power of prayer proved from the words of our 

Saviour 65 

v. Our Saviour's promises extend to prayer offered for 

the salvation of our neighbor 73 

vi. The promises of Jesus Christ extend to prayers 

offered by sinners 81 

vii. The power of prayer proved by the teachings of the 

Saints 86 

viii. The practice of the Saints — the example of our Lord 89 
ix. Causes of the little result of our prayers — qualities 

they should have .... 104 

x. Summary of all that has been said on prayer .... 117 

337 



338 GENERAL CONTENTS. 

Chapter II. 

Second source of power — Association* 

Analysis, i-vi 120 

i. Promises of our Lord to prayer made in common . 121 
ii. Motives of the promises made in favor of association . 

drawn from Gods nature 123 

iii. Association, a source of strength in every order of 

things 127 

iv. The power of association in the supernatural order . . 129 
v. The fearful power of the association of wicked men 132 
vi. Practical conclusion of what has been said on associa- 
tion — Relations between the Apostleship of Prayer 
and the Association for the Propagation of the 
Faith 139 

Chapter III. 

Third source of power— Union with the Sacred 
Heart. 

Analysis, i-iv 150 

The Apostleship's power from the Heart of the Incar- 
nate Word and the Holy Ghost 15 1 

i. The prayers of Christians are the prayers of Jesus 

Christ 153 

ii. The Christian's prayers are produced in him by the 

Holy Ghost 159 

iii. Holy Communion, a means of renewing the life of 
Jesus Christ in us, and of uniting our prayers more 

closely with His own 166 

iv. Conclusions of the whole first part 174 

Appendix. 

{From the later writings of Father Ramiere!) 
On true devotion to the Sacred Heart, and its relation 
with the Apostleship of Prayer, i-ii 181 



GENERAL CONTENTS. 339* 

SECOND PART. 

On the Advantages and Seasonableness of the Apostleship 

of Prayer, 

Page 
The Apostleship of Prayer, Its advantages and its 

seasonableness . 193, 

Chapter I. 

Advantages of the Apostleship of Prayer: to the Indi- 
vidual 195 

Analysis, i-iv 196 

i. The Apostleship of Prayer, a plentiful source of merits . 197 
ii. The Apostleship of Prayer, a plentiful source of satis- 
faction for our faults 209 

iii. The Apostleship of Prayer accredits us before God, 
and is a sovereign means of obtaining from God 

whatever we ask of Him .214 

iv. The Apostleship of Prayer, a plentiful source of peace 

and interior consolation 219 

Chapter II. 

Advantages of the Apostleship of Prayer : to Society, 

Analysis, i-ii 226 

i. The advantages which result to society from the dif- 
fusion of the spirit of zeal 227 

ii. The advantages which result to society from the dif- 
fusion of the spirit of prayer 236 

Chapter III. 

Advantages of the Apostleship of Prayer : t O the Uni- 
versal Church. 

Analysis, i vi 241 

Advantages that should result to the whole Church from 

the Apostleship of Prayer 242 



340 GENERAL CONTENTS. 

i. Usefulness of the Apostleship of Prayer to the preser- 
vation and well-being of the Church 244 

11 The usefulness of the Apostleship of Prayer rests on 

the doctrine of the Communion of Saints 250 

ii. Usefulness of the Apostleship of Prayer for the defence 

and increase of the Church 25 & 

v. Usefulness of the Apostleship of Prayer for bringing 

forth and developing apostolic vocations ... 262 

v. Usefulness of the Apostleship of Prayer for drawing 
closer the bonds which unite all the members of 
the Church . 265 

vi. Conclusion — the Apostleship of Prayer, a sure pledge 

of predestination — the thought of the Saints . . . 26S 

Chapter IV. 

The Apostleship of Prayer : Its Seasonableness* 

Analysis, i-iii . . 277 

Seasonableness of the Apostleship of Prayer 27S 

i. Motives of hope 281 

ii. Motives of fear . 291 

iii. Motives of fear changed to motives of hope by God's 

mercy — Conclusion of the Second Part . . . 300 

Appendix I. — Organization, i-ii 305 

Appendix II. — [Providence and Prayer], i-ii 323 

Index • • 33 1 

General Contents 337 



JC fa 



